I'm just back ashore from a thrilling day of snorkeling with sperm whales off Dominica. The trip was organized by Tom Campbell and Beth Davidow and run by Chris of Indigo Safaris. I was glad to reconnect with Russ, Barb, and Jerry from previous trips I've been on with Tom and Beth. We had calm sea conditions with some showers coming offshore from the mountains now and again. The sperm whales were truly awesome.
Below are some photos from today, for more, please go to:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/MvdxcrvXgADrBhm17
My first ever Sperm Whale. I've snorkeled with Humpbacks three times, on the Silver Banks off the Dominican Republic with the Turks and Caicos Aggressor in 2000 and 2002 and in Tonga last August. Whales are truly awesome. Snorkeling with Sperm Whales is a bit of a fire drill, the three tourists and guide get on the boat's deck while underway as we get ahead of the whale, then, a quiet splash free as possible slide into the water and a hard kick to get in front of the whale. Great fun, very exciting. After the whale passes you regroup in order to get picked up and back on the boat ASAP so the next team of four gets a shot. The whales spend a limited time at the surface while feeding. When the Sperm Whale puts its massive fluke up it means the whale is diving deep - like half a mile deep- to hunt squid and won't surface again for 40 to 50 minutes. In the meantime the boat puts in a directional hydrophone to listen to the Sperm whales clicks and hopefully soon find another to snorkel with. When the sperm whales start heading west, offshore, the boats don't follow in order to give the whales relief...
About to put her fluke up and dive deep.
Down she goes. Mature males are solitary, we're snorkeling with moms and their calves of various ages. Note that you can see the white outline of her jaw. In this orientation she has a binocular vision of me. When looking ahead they can only see out one side or the other with their big bulging melon head blocking the view close in front of them.
Another whale. Their open jaw is not a threat display! Their teeth are in their lower jaw, around 6 inches long, and fit into sockets in the upper jaw.
Two moms and a calf.
All these shots are "drive throughs" so I'm kicking as hard as I can an breathing as hard and fast as I am able in order to come close to keeping up. Our guide, Izzy, describes it as chasing Feraris with a donkey cart.
Here comes perhaps the same trio on another drop. The lead female is turning left, the calf, still the size of a small bus is still headed directly for me.
The calf doesn't look that close in my wide angle but we were about 2 seconds or less from collision, I was pretty sure the calf would manage to miss but it didn't have room to its left because of its mom and it would have had to turn away completely to go around to the right..
The calf dived and went directly under me, I was too awestruck to take that picture!
What an incredible first day of snorkeling with Sperm Whales!!!
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