Sperm Whale Expedition Trip Report 2024

Dominica Island
March 31 - April 7, 2024

April 1, 2024 - DAY ONE. Today was first day on the water and it was a beautiful day; flat calm, sunny and warm. 

The kind of day you dream about. 

Sadly it was not our day for whales because we got skunked.

It happens. 

No one ever wants it to happen (especially me), but that is life and how the ocean delivers us her magic.

I still feel really lucky and am looking forward to seeing what the ocean has in store for us this week.

We did see two species of dolphins; the pantropical spotted dolphins and the Fraser’s dolphin.

We didn’t get in the water with them. We tried topside shots, but was unsuccessful.

These guys are fast.

We did a good thing for the ocean (sort of). We found a huge net floating on the surface.

This net was tangled up with several other nets. A huge death trap for turtles and other sea life. 

For the small stuff, it was an amazing sanctuary. A beautiful Eden for tiny things, like fish fry, tiny crabs, lobsters, shrimp, and so many different things.

It was floating protection.

I felt horrible for destroying their home and robbing so many tiny organisms of life. But if we didn’t this net would eventually trap something big, like a seaturtle, so ultimately it was a good thing to remove it from the eco-system. 

Despite searching far and wide for whales, we saw nothing.

They saw them yesterday, so they are around.

We just need more time, some good luck, and some good ocean karma, (think we earned a few points today), and the whales will arrive.

Everyone is still in great spirits and eager to get back out there tomorrow. 

Tomorrow is our day… I can feel it!

April 2, Day Two. - Skunked again sadly. 

We went out in search of the sperm whales, but sadly we did not find them. 

It was overcast and cloudy this morning so that did not help our search.

But the hydrophones were picking up no clicks so that was not good.

We went North today becuase there was more whale activity out on the North side.

There was a report that one of the other boats had found the sperm whales, but they were way out in the Atlantic and it was too far for us to travel out there and too rough. 

So we turned around and started heading back to the South side of the island.

Our captain got a radio call that there was a couple of humpbacks and some pilot whales in the area, so we motored over to where they were. The pilots were gone, but the two humpbacks were around.

We tried to approach but the whales did not want to come near the boat.

They were nervous. 

So we tried one jump with them, they avoided us completely, so we decided to leave them alone and to try and find the pilot whales.

Sadly we never did catch up to the pilot whales, so we finished up the day swimming at Champaign reef.

We still have four more days to find the sperm whales… fingers crossed!

Tomorrow is absolutely our day!

April 3, 2024 - Day 3! 333 magic happens. Today it happened! We left port this morning and straight to Fort Young Hotel to pick up Marisa and David, which is where they are staying.

While we waited for them we could see two humpback whales breaching about 300 yards away. They were breaching over and over again.

After they got on board we raced over to where the whales were. They had already stopped breaching, so we motored slowly over, watching their behavior for a bit to see if they were spooked by the boat. They were super calm. They seemed to be following our boat.

They made a pass right behind our boat, we were not expecting it so we were not ready to jump in.

We thought these guys might be players. So we followed them for a bit and then jumped in to see what they would do.

They passed underneath us and then disappeared. They sadly did not want to play.

Which was fine. It was a great way to start the day, but humpbacks are not why we are here.

We wanted sperm whales!

While we were in the water we received word from friends on another boat that there were some sperm whales in the North, so we left the humpbacks and motored over to the north side of the island which took a while.

We got to where our friend’s boat was and there was no sign of any sperm whales. So we dropped the hydrophone and you could hear the clicks and ticking sounds that sperm whales make! 

Love that sound.

So we sat there in the water, watching, waiting. After about 40 minutes, We saw our first sperm whale blows nearby and motored over to them.

It was two adults and a young sperm whale. 

We jumped in and did a quick swim with them. 

The whales were swimming with a purpose and were moving fast. 

These adults were in hunting mode.

When they are hunting, they will spend five to ten minutes at the surface between deep dives, to re-oxygenate their blood in preparation for their next dive. 

They often dive down to depths of 3,000 to 6,000 feet in search of their favorite food, the giant squid. 

When the adults finally dove down, the juvenile stayed behind. 

The youngsters are not able to dive deep yet. So they stay on the surface listening for mom and the family hunting below. 

This beautiful baby stayed at the surface just resting in place. 

We jumped in and had an amazing encounter with this beauty.

She played and rolled, turning upside down and spinning. We were watching her, and she was watching us.

We all got two solid jumps with her and then left her alone. 

We kept the interactions short, as we didn’t want to stress out the baby. 

All of us were on fire.

This is the type of interaction you dream about when you think of sperm whale diving- and we got to experience it on our first day in the water with them is magic!

Well it was day three, but our first day seeing the sperm whales.

We got three more days left… excited to see what tomorrow brings!

April 4, 2024 - Day Four. Skunk-ola!

Damn, it was a tough day. We heard sperm whale clicks all morning but did not see a single whale. 

Not one blow…Nada!

So strange. We went South today. The winds were howling and there were white caps everywhere, so that made finding whales a bit more challenging. 

Mating season is still happening, and even though that is a good thing because the females are flirty and friendly, they are also ready to mate.

This means, that if a male shows up, the females will follow him to deeper quieter waters. 

Right before our trip started a male was in the area. Today, there was another male around the area.

This is one of the reasons we are having trouble finding sperm whales. 

Those damn boys… nothing but trouble!

We have two more days left. Hoping to find some more magic for us.

April 5, 2024 - Day Five. the day was beautiful. Flat calm seas, bright blue sky.  We motored out to the southern part of the island. 

Like the day before. Following the ticks and clicks we heard on the hydrophone yesterday. 

We went far offshore and were no longer protected by the island. We felt the winds and the swells picking up. 

(10:23 am) We found the sperm whales!

So far it’s two females and one big male. The females are hunting and the big boy is trying to attract the girls. 

We were gonna try a jump, but the big boy wanted nothing to do with us. So he dropped down for a shallow dive. 

A shallow dive is when they leave the surface and dive down, but they do not stick their flukes out of the water. That means he is not planning on diving that deep.

We are ignoring him now and trying to follow the females. We are all hoping it’s a familiar pod. 

Kevin is hoping it is Unit J or Unit R. If they are, we will have a nice day, these are very friendly. 

We will see.

We had a few whales come up to the surface, but sadly this group is very skittish.

We tried a few times to position ourselves for a jump but the whales said NO!

They kept turning away from us. We didn’t force ourselves on them. 

Once the whale turned away from the boat twice, we left them alone and took off to find another whale on the surface.

So far all have said no. 

There is a big male in this pod, he is trying to mate with the females, but they do not seem receptive to the male’s advances. 

Maybe that is why they are being shy. 

We found another pod closer to the island…Time to track them.

2PM - well, we tried and tried and tried. We had a lot of whale sightings today and the whales just did not want to play. 

We counted between 10-12 different whales today. They were from two different units and they still had no interest in interacting with us at all. 

A few of us didn’t get in the water at all today. well we did, but we jumped in to play and cool off.

Disappointing that we didn’t get to swim with the whale, but that is wild nature and not a zoo.

The animals control the encounters and they decide if they want to play, or not play.

Today as we approached the animals they would veer away, or dive down… and we were not going to force ourselves on the animals.  

That makes for terrible encounters that just do not feel good. There is no magic in that.

These are special animals and are deserving of our respect. 

We have one more day.

Tomorrow is our day… I can feel it!

April 6, 2024- Day Six. Today the weather has been perfect. Perfect sky, perfect winds, perfect seas.

Sadly no whales. It’s 1:49pm right now and we have not seen a thing today.

All the whales from yesterday are gone!

We think they followed the males off shore somewhere and this area has produced nada for us.

We went far today in search of the whales. Conditions were good enough that we were able to push the limits for distance.

And still nothing. No signs of whale life out here anywhere.

The boys are trying hard to find us something, anything right now. 

On our way to check out a fad and see what is hanging out underneath it. Hopefully something cool.

Nothing hangin around in the fad. 

The guests were in good spirits though and understood this is wildlife and there are never any guarantees.

Overall it was a tough but good week at sea. We had two solid days of whales. We heard whales on four of our six days but only caught up to them twice.

Breeding season is always the best time to be out here, because the females are flirty and feel like interacting with people.

But sometimes, breeding season can be frustrating, as the males have the females distracted with zero interest in people.

This was the year for that.

I am already looking forward to next season and our return to this very special area and these very special whales.

We did get a really good taste of how special these animals are… and it left us all wanting more!

Thanks to all my friends who joined us this season, thank you to everyone who has followed along on this journey.

Until the next one!