a spectacular diving machine...

Today was my day off so i took the opportunity to hit the sea in search of the Sperm Whale. Luckily enough the sea was calm, the sun created a haze and it was beautiful. We observed the smallest penguin in the world, the blue penguin, we also saw blue shark, new zealand fur seal and various species of albatross, including white capped albatross wondering albatross, and salvins albatross.

The captain slowed the boat down and switched off the engines, the crew explained that they were going to put a hydrophone into the water to try and listen out for the clicking of the sperm whale. The crew allowed me to have a listen and sure enough we could hear the sperm whale.

After a few minutes floating on the ocean the crew shouted "blow" our boat turned around and headed in the direction of the whales breath. The whale is hardly visible at the surface and when they dive, they dive! They can disappear for upto 2 hours, and can dive to depths of 3km below the surface. The sperm whale is mainly seen around the areas of ocean where the continental shelf drops off dramatically to depths of 1000-3000m. Their diet consists of mainly on giant squid which is only found in the deepest water.

We managed to locate the sperm whale who stayed at the surface for about 10 minutes, logging. The blow is directed to the left and is very bushy. I managed to get some video which showed the whale changing direction, with great agility. So for a brief moment the sperm whale stayed at the surface, taking in some oxygen in preperation for a huge dive...on the final blow the body of the whale slightly disappears and then re-emerges raising dorsal hump, he then rolls and acceelerates displaying his strong tail stock and flukes, as it becomes completely vertical sinks sliently inton the abyss.

simply beautiful and unforgettable, i love to think that they are still out there as i write this, surfacing to breathe below the light of the moon.