Orcas and Sperm whales are toothed whales. A lot is known about both species.
I was born in New Bedford
Massachusetts which was the whaling capital of the world. In the whaling museum there is a huge collection of log
books from the era when whalers sailed everywhere hunting whales. They were truly the first oceanographers for they recorded everything.
Wind, currents, native people.
The
logs are incredibly detailed and are to this day, a gold mine of information for any sailor. Naturally they had quite a bit to say about the behavior of whales.
Especially sperm whales as the case
oil, an acoustic coupling
oil found in the head, was highly valued for clocks. Melville writing of Moby Dick was somewhat based on a true story. Sperm whales were the most feared whales because...
once you stuck a harpoon in it, the sperm whale will attack. It bit 30’ chase boats in two on a regular basis. There are some beautiful paintings and scrimshaw depicting exactly that. JFK had two sperm whale teeth on his desk.
They are about 7 inches high. These are huge, incredibly powerful
animals.
As a young man I was fascinated with whaling and devoured all thing whale.
Unlike Orcas, Sperms are often solitary, wary, far ranging. The toothed whales, like elephants, which are related to manatees,...live in an acoustic world. They are extremely protective of their young and vocalization is complex. Unlike Orcas, Sperms use sound to stun. They are mobile stun
guns.
I had a unique professional life, part of which involved sponsoring
marine research. The
marine mammal experts thought they knew a lot about Sperms.
A young researcher was curious how sperms could manage to catch giant squid which is their favorite
food. The squids can live a mile down. How does a lumbering giant catch a much faster squid that can turn on a dime. Why is a Sperm’s jaw underneath it’s huge head. What she proposed was ridiculed by many experts. She believed the Sperms used sound to knock out their prey.
She called it stunning sound. The head was a huge focused
transducer filled with a special oil. She was correct. The whales used sound to locate and stun the squid for just a second then roll their heads and eat dinner. Our corporation needed to learn more about acoustics in the marine
environment and thus I learned quite a bit about marine bioacoustics. Norwegian
money permitted me to build one of the most sophisticated private acoustic
research boats in the world.
Later in life I became fascinated with manatees.
In all my readings of whaling
logs, I learned Melville picked a rare gem. Sperm whale, Orcas, just don’t attack boats unless they perceive they have been attacked. They eat
seals, squid. Anecdotal evidence is not science. Stories of “we were attacked by Orcas “ should begin, we looked like we were attacking them so they attacked back. There is nothing in the literature, either scientific nor the original whaling logs to state any unprovoked attacks.
One poster told a “tale” of being attacked by Manatees.
What probably happened was that he swam into a manatee love fest...one female and a number of males and she just was tired of dancing.
Manatees don’t attack anything except romaine lettuce, pizza and
beer.
Good grief. WHEN are these SILLY stories going to end.
I’ll comment on the German boat attack tomorrow.
My manatees are out of
beer so I got to go our they’ll get rowdy.
Happy trails to you.
Captain Mark and his well read but still offgassing manatee friends