Sperm Whale

Sperm Whale

  • Scientific name: Physeter macrocephalus
  • Also known as: Cachalot
  • Size: Typical fully grown males are 13 – 16 metres, but have been confirmed as growing to over 20 metres and 40 tons. Females are generally two-thirds to three-quarters of the size of males.
  • IUCN Status
    • Global: VU (Vulnerable)
    • Europe: VU (Vulnerable)
  • Distribution: Widespread but dispersed population across deep, open water of all of the world’s seas and oceans.
  • Feeds on: Mostly large, deep-sea squid, although fish species will also be eaten as well.
  • Description: Extremely large whale species which has a large square head (which makes up around one third of the overall body length) with relatively narrow, long jaws. Teeth only present in the lower jaw. Body is long and cylindrical with large flat tail flukes. The blowhole is unusually offset to the left. Colour is usually dark greyish.

Sperm whales are a very large whale species which are the largest toothed predator in the world. Sperm whales are intelligent animals which show high levels of social behaviour. While sperm whales were previously commercially exploited by humans, and although sperm whales are classed as Vulnerable by the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature), there is now international protection for this species.


Sperm whales are found in deep water in all of the major seas and oceans of the world. They are usually found far away from land in the open ocean in water which is several thousand metres deep. While sperm whales are not common in British watesr they are sighted from time to time. In 2013 a pod of fourteen sperm whales were sighted in the Firth of Fourth just a mile away from land, and a number of sperm whales washed up on the coastline of England and other European countries in 2016 (see below).

Life Cycle

Sperm Whale Size Comparison

Size comparison between fully grown male and female sperm whales and a human.

Sperm whales are though to live for around seventy years. They display high levels of social cohesiveness with females looking after their young for many years after birth (there is also evidence that females teach their young how to hunt) and members of the group protecting weaker or injured individuals. Fully grown males, however, are usually solitary creatures which gather with other sperm whales only to breed. Sperm whales are thought to communicate using clicking noises known as codas, although this is poorly understood by humans.


Squid Battle

A display depicting a battle between a giant squid and a sperm whale at the Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Sperm whales feed primarily on large squid species. They can reach maximum depths of 3000 metres and spend two hours underwater to locate their prey. It is believed that sperm whales will regularly eat squid which are in excess of 30lb in weight, and very large sperm whales will often take on squid which are much larger than this. Indeed, sperm whales have been observed and found with wounds on their heads caused by the lashing tentacles of colossal and giant squid. It is believed that the giant squid have evolved the largest eyes in the animal kingdom – they are more than 30cm across – so that they can spot approaching sperm whales, while sperm whales have retractable eyes, which possibly evolved as a defence against the tentacles of the squid. While squid are the main source of food for sperm whales they are also thought to feed on fish and the smaller shark species from time to time if squid are not available. See a computer generated video of a large sperm whale battling with a giant squid on YouTube here.

European Sperm Whale Strandings in 2016

Sperm whales have become beached in various locations around the British Isles in recent years – in 2011 a 44ft, 20 ton sperm whales was found dead on Redcar beach, North Yorkshire and in early 2014 a large sperm whale washed up dead on a beach near Edinburgh. However, In early 2016 a 14-metre sperm whale washed up on a beach in Hunstanton in Norfolk and was followed by three more large sperm whales washing up on a beach in Lincolnshire. Finally a fifth sperm whale washed up on another Lincolnshire beach a short time later. All of the sperm whales were believed to come from the same pod which had entered the North Sea at the start of the year, with the rest of the whales also dying and washing up on beaches in Germany and the Netherlands.

Sperm Whale Beached

A sperm whale beached on a Norfolk beach in 2006. In the first few months of 2016 twenty-nine sperm whales washed up in European countries.

Sperm whales are adapted to live and feed in deep water and rely on their echolocation and biosonar to find navigate. In the relatively shallow North Sea which has a sandy and muddy seabed their echolocation does not work as well and they soon become disoriented and lost, often finding themselves in shallow water and ending up beached. Once they are stranded their is little hope for sperm whales as they soon overheat and their bodies are not designed to support the organs once the whale is outside of the water, leading to organ failure. On 4th February another large sperm whale washed up on the beach at Hunstanton, bringing the number stranded on beaches in Europe in 2016 to twenty-nine.

In May 2016 the Sunday Times reported that pollution may have played a role in the sperm whale beachings. They claimed that PCBs used in flame retardants, pesticides, sealants, adhesives and a range of other applications until the 1970s have contaminated the sea and had a major effect on sperm whales. The newspaper stated that PCBs suppress the immune systems of the whales, leaving them vulnerable to bacterial and parasitic infections, meaning they no longer have the strength to prevent themselves becoming beached. It was also claimed that PCBs reduced the fertility of female sperm whales by up to 50%.


Sperm whales are so called because of the spermaceti organ which is located in the whale’s head. This organ contains a mix of hundreds of litres of wax and oil and it is thought that the sperm whale can heat or cool this to help with diving. However, the purpose of this organ is poorly understood and some scientists believe it could be used in echolocation. However, whalers who caught sperm whales in previous centuries believed this liquid was semen, hence the name of this species of whale.

Hunting of Sperm Whales

Sperm Whale Hunting 1850s

Picture depicting a sperm whale hunt in the 1860s.

Sperm whales were hunted across the world by sail boats from the 1700s. While the meat of this species was sometimes sold the main value was in the spermaceti liquid. This had a wide range of uses including being refined into sperm oil which could then be used as a bright burning and odour free lamp oil, and also used as an industrial lubricant. Indeed, sperm oil was widely used as a lubricant in the gear boxes of many US cars until the 1970s – once sperm oil was banned as a lubricant in gear boxes there was a big increase the gearbox failures in American cars in the mid to late 1970s. Sperm whales also produce the extremely valuable substance ambergris (see below), which is unique to this species.

Sperm Oil

Sperm oil is derived from spermaceti from sperm whales.

Hunting sperm whales in these days was extremely dangerous as a large boat would lower down smaller boats which would then harpoon a sperm whale and allow it to drag them through the sea until it was so tired that the crew would be able to kill the whale by stabbing it with blades and lances. However, the aggressive sperm whales would often fight back, with the famous example of a large male sperm whale fought back and sunk the 238-ton whaling boat the Essex in 1820, leading to the eventual deaths of eight of the twenty crew. This incident is thought to be the inspiration for Herman Melville’s classic 1851 novel Moby-Dick and the 2015 Hollywood film In the Heart of the Sea.

Global Sperm Whale

By the 1900s advancing technology such as steam powered ships and explosive-tipped harpoons meant that sperm whales could be caught at an industrial level with much less risk to the crews of ships. In the years following world war two the numbers of sperm whales killed was in the hundreds of thousands – a completely unsustainable situation. However, by the end of the twentieth century other sources of oil were becoming available and the value of sperm whale oil and blubber fell dramatically, making the hunting of sperm whales uneconomical in many cases leading the reduction in the intensive hunting of sperm whales.


Ambergris (pronounced amber-gree) is a strange substance produced by the digestive system of sperm whales. Often described as ‘whale vomit’ it is usually black, grey and yellowish in colour and wax-like in texture. Ambergris has been used in the manufacture of expensive perfumes for many years, and can be worth tens of thousands of pounds per kilogram.



Despite scientific research there still remains much mystery over what exactly ambergris is and how it is produced. Certainly it is only produced by sperm whales and no other whale species, but no one knows exactly why these animals produce this substance. It is theorised that it may be used ease the passage of sharp objects – such as the beaks of squids or the teeth of large fish – through the digestive system of sperm whales. For reasons that remain unknown a small number of sperm whales (maybe as few as one per cent) expel ambergris from their bodies, either by passing it through their intestines or vomiting it out of their mouth. While ambergris smells extremely unpleasant when it is initially produced by sperm whales it eventually loses this and takes on a pleasant aroma.

In the past when sperm whales were hunted they would be killed and the ambergris removed from their intestines (this also happens in the novel Moby-Dick). However, with sperm whales no longer being commercially hunted ambergris is only collected once it has been naturally produced by sperm whales. Once it has been expelled by the whale it will float in the sea. Often it will be lost if it is broken up by a storm or smashed against rocks near to the shore. However, occasionally ambergris is washed up onto a beach where it will be discovered by lucky passers-by who have the necessary knowledge to realise what they have found.

Ambergris is so valuable due to its use in the cosmetics industry. It is used as an ingredient in high-price perfumes as it acts as a fixative allowing the perfume to retain its smell for longer periods of time. While a lot of big perfume manufacturers now use chemical or synthetic fixatives in their products there is still great demand for ambergris with huge prices paid for this substance. Ambergris has been used for this purpose for around one thousand years, while previous centuries also saw ambergris used for flavouring food and as a component in medical treatments.

Hundreds of years ago ambergris was many times more expensive than the equivalent weight of gold, and while it is no longer this vauable ambergris many perfume manufacturers are still willing to pay high prices for ambergris. In 2013 a man waking on a beach in Morecambe found a 3kg (7lb) piece of ambergris which was worth £43,000, and in 2015 a 1.1kg (2.4lb) lump of ambergris found on a Welsh beach sold for £11,000 at auction. Similarly a Lancashire couple found a 1.57kg (3.4lb) which they hoped to sell for £50,000. The legality of possessing ambergris varies from country to country. In the United States it is banned due to the fact it is produced by sperm whales which are a protected species. However, in many European countries (including the UK) it is legal to own and sell ambergris, provided it has been found and not removed from the sperm whale.

Conservation Status of Sperm Whales

Grand Ball Given by Whales

Grand Ball Given by Whales – A satirical cartoon in Vanity Fair, 1861, showing sperm whales celebrating the discovery of new oil wells in Pennsylvania. The increasing availability of oil reduced the value of whale oil, and therefore the intensity of hunting on whales.

Today sperm whales are not hunted commercially. This species received international protection in the 1970s with all major whaling nations stopping hunting this species by the 1980s. Sperm whales are protected throughout the world’s seas and oceans and numbers of this species are stable and slowly increasing, although the low birth rate and long gestation period of this species means that it will take a very long time for number to recover to anything close to pre-commercial whaling levels. While sperm whales are not hunted today there are still a number of threats to this species such as sperm whales being caught up and killed in fishing nets and Japanese whaling for ‘scientific research.’ The current threats to sperm whales means that the IUCN classes them as Vulnerable globally and in Europe, while in the Mediterranean Sea they are classed as Endangered.

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