A treat from the deep :-)

Today we had an awsome sighting of a sperm whale, a female because of it's rounded dorsal fin came to the surface to take in some air and then sank back down into the depths of the ocean. We were 15minutes into our trip, i had just finished a snorkelling lesson on the back deck when Jess interrupted her talk about the Kaikoura canyon to explain that their was a sperm whale up ahead. I was so excited and sure enough i captured her breathing at the surface, just incredible, like a dinosaur of the deep. I frantically reached for my camera - NO MEMORY CARD! as i had taken it out the previous night to upload pictures, i panicked a little as they only stay at the surface between dives for about 8-10 minutes, then i realised i had a spare, luckily!

They have an angled bushy blow out to the left. They have wrinkly skin (like me!). These guys prefer deep water greater than 2000m near areas where there are deep under water canyon systems like Kaikoura, where these sperm whales are resident all year round. There is no other place in the world where this species is routinely found near to the coast.

The sperm whale diet consists of mainly squid, but they will also feed on sharks and rays. They feed using clicks and echolocation to locate and possibly stun their prey. After a few moments at the surface the sperm whale took a huge dive. Unfortunately she did not show her beautiful tail fluke, but she disappeared as if by magic. The dives can last up to an hour, so if we had been 10 minutes later we would have missed her breathing at the surface. We would have been completely oblivious to feeding beneath us.

As our tour continued, i couldn't help but wear a huge smile on my face, i explained to the customers that in the 4 and a half months iv been working here i have never seen as sperm whale on one of our tours, usually they are found much further offshore about 6-10 miles, so this was a real treat.

We spent the rest of the day watching 500+ dusky dolphins being extremely acrobatic at the surface, iv named it 'dolphin fireworks!' they put on an incredible display. The Easterly winds picked up for our afternoon tours, the ocean turned into an incredible natural rollercoaster.

So that was my day and it was fabulous and i didn't stop smiling. I'll never forget what my dad told me before i came here "take a camera everywhere with you Jen, you never know what might appear" anything can happen keep your eyes open! x