sperm whales

A Podcast About Wildlife, Family, Sharks, and the Road That Led Here

Recently I had the opportunity to sit down with the Rio Grande Podcast, a podcast based right here in my home here in South Texas.

It was a fun conversation because it wasn't really about a single trip, a single animal, or even a single photograph.

It was about the journey.

We talked about how this whole thing began.

We talked about sharks, wildlife photography, family, conservation, and some of the incredible animals I've been fortunate enough to share time with over the years.

But more than anything, we talked about the moments.

The moments that change you.

The moments that remind you why you started.

The moments that keep you getting back on airplanes, boats, and dusty roads even after thousands of miles and countless adventures.

We also spent some time talking about family and the role they have played in all of this. Anyone who has followed our adventures knows that none of this happens alone. Every expedition, every story, every success has been built with the support of family, friends, guides, guests, and countless people I've met along the way.

One of the things I enjoyed most about the conversation was the opportunity to look back.

Most of the time I'm focused on the next trip, the next animal, the next story.

Rarely do I stop and think about the path that led here.

The truth is, I've been lucky.

Lucky enough to spend my life around wildlife.

Lucky enough to turn a passion into a career.

Lucky enough to share these experiences with people from all over the world.

And lucky enough to call South Texas home.

If you'd like to hear the full conversation, I hope you'll take some time to listen.

It's a conversation about wildlife.

But it's also a conversation about life.


You can listen to the podcast HERE.

Or

Watch the interview on Youtube.

Hello Dominica!

I finally made it to Dominica.

Only took me two days.

Because of where I live in deep South Texas, I am often forced to fly a day early to get to most of my destinations, just in case a flight is delayed.

Which sometimes happens.

Airlines are not perfect, they are full of flaws.

When I get to chatting with my travel buddies, we can sit down and trade horror story, after horror story of the crap we often go through to get from point A to point B on a plane.

Airlines, airports, customs, TSA -long lines, canceled flights, lost luggage… All can be a nightmare sometimes.

But…in the end, I don’t mind.

To me, airplanes are highways to the world!

I love them, despite their many flaws.

This morning I woke up in a hotel in Miami, and now I am in a hotel on a beautiful island in the Caribbean.

I get to meet interesting people and see interesting places.

Monday morning I will be in/on the water looking for sperm whales to swim with.

Tomorrow is Sunday and I have the day for me. I am not sure what I want to do yet.

Explore the island… or go shore diving?

Not sure?

But thanks to a plane… these are my options.

Goodnight from Dominica!

It's Monday... Countdown to Dominica Begins

The week begins!

This weekend I spent my days doing normal life kind of things. Repairing things, lawn care… Domestic stuff that has nothing to do with the wildlife world.

So I will stop there with the boring unrelated to why you visit this page stories… on to the good stuff.

This week is prep week. I am sorting through last-minute gear prepping for next week’s expedition to Dominica.

Dominica is such a cool island in the Caribbean. There is a freshwater river for every day of the year. At least that is what the islanders boast.

365 rivers and hot streams that pepper the island, which is really cool.

It has waterfalls and lots and lots of forests. It is a beautiful island. A must-visit kind of place.

What is exciting for me and for our friends who are joining us, is the very healthy population of sperm whales that call the waters surrounding the island home.

I am looking forward to a great week of swimming with the whales. Hoping for magic to happen.

There are several pods / families of sperm whales that call Dominica home.

Some are friendlier than others. Most seek out interactions with people. Some don’t and that is ok.

Those whales we leave alone. But the whales that do want to share time with people, those whales are true magic and moments with them is the stuff that dreams are made of.

Either way, it is going to be a great week of good friends, beautiful scenery, and a week of life- in and on the ocean with big animals.

It doesn’t get any better than that!

Have a beautiful week everyone!

Days Like Today Are Why I Want to Live Forever!

Day Six, our final day of the trip, and it was the BEST day of the trip too.

We left at 9am this morning and motored out to the South side of the island to listen for sperm whales. We knew the Utensils pod went south when the pilot whales arrived three days ago, but we were hoping they would come back.

The Utensils pod is one of the friendliest pods off Dominica, and is great for interactions. We dropped the hydrophone and listened, but zero clicks. No sperm whales were around. So we decided to head North and see if the sperm whales were on the other side of the island.

While in route, we found out why the sperm whales were gone from the South side. The pilot whales had returned. The pod we encountered on day three was back. When we found them three days ago, they were headed South and out into the Atlantic. The pilots returned and were now headed North.

At this point we knew any search for sperm whales would be difficult, so we decided to embrace what nature has presented to us and just hang out with the pilot whales.

I am so glad we did.

We positioned the boat 100 yards in front of the whales and killed the motor. The pilot whales did something we did not expect, they swam straight up to the boat, stopped swimming and all of them began spy hoping. We were all putting on swim gear, but this sort of stopped us in our tracks. What were they doing?

A quick video of the pilot whales behavior. I was torn between capturing topside and getting in the water, so its a short video.

A group of about thirty whales were all on the surface, not swimming, just hovering there by our boat, seemly taking turns sticking their faces out of the water, looking at us. It was insane!!!

I was torn between filming the spectacle and grabbing my kit and jumping in the water. Bill, our captain said he has never seen this behavior before. Not in the numbers that we were seeing today.

I captured a few stills, and tried to record a little bit of video, but my need to get in the water won me over, and I put the topside camera down and went to grab my swim gear.

I am trying really hard to find the words to describe what we all experienced today, it really is hard to find the words. To quote Jodie Foster from the movie Contact… “they should of sent a poet, no words.” I know it sounds cheesy, but the day was above and beyond anything I normally have experienced with whales.

The whales would hang out, then swim off. We would get back on the boat, get ahead of them and jump in again. The whales would swim back to the boat and interact with us again, and we did this over and over again for five hours straight.

The whale would swim up to us, roll, and play, and hang around us and then swim off again. Sometimes dropping down into the depths, other times just swim off into the distance. It was true magic.

After about three hours we decided to give them a break, eat lunch and just watch them from the boat. I was about to eat my wrap when the pilot whales swam back to the boat to find out what happened to us. It seemed they wanted to know where we went. They again were hovering right by the boat, some of them were spy hopping, waiting to see if we were going to jump back in.

My heart and mind were exploding.

So we scrapped the lunch idea and back into the water we went. We continued swimming with them. It was non-stop… the whales kept coming up to us. One of the juveniles took a big interest in our cameras and kept coming up close to get a good look at the dome ports. Maybe it was looking at it’s reflection, I don’t know?

This went on for the next two hours.

On our final jump of the day, we jumped in and the whales dove down to avoid us. We took that as a sign that they were done and it was time to call it a day.

The emotions on the boat were at an all time high. All of us were on fire… this was the stuff that dreams are made of. I have had some amazing moments in the water, but this day ranks up there with the very best of them.

Sandy, one of our friends on the trip said it best, “Days like today are why I would want to live forever.”

Wanted to say a special thanks to the beautiful people of Dominica, and a HUGE thank you to our friends who joined us out there, it was an amazing week. Luv you guys.


Until the next one and thank you guys for reading.

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Damn the Wolves!!!

Day five of our expedition, and well, it was a very slow day. We managed to see only four sperm whales, and it took all day to find them.

We tried to get in the water with them, but they wanted nothing to do with us. They were turning, changing directions, just going out of their way to avoid us. So we decided to leave them alone, it is no fun when they do that.

The last thing we see before a sperm whale drops down and disappears into the depths below.

We searched for whales, on both the North and South end of the island. We could hear them, but they were far away… too far for us to go searching for them at least. The pilot whales definitely affect their behavior, and two days later the whales are still spooked and have not returned to their hunting grounds here by the island yet.

I was googling if pilot whales eat baby sperm whales. Google said there is no proof that they do, but that their presence definitely effects the sperm whales behavior. The boys (boat crew) told us that they have seen the pilot whales attacking and harassing the sperm whales. So for me that is 100% YES!

After a full day of searching we called it a day, and headed back to port. Before we did, we jumped in for a quick snorkel at champagne reef. It was a super hot day so the water felt nice. While we were out snorkeling around, I had this good looking fish swim up to my dome port to look at itself. Well not sure if it was looking at itself, but it was definitely intrigued with my camera and followed me around for bit. I do not know the species, my buddy Rich told me what it was, but I forgot.

It was a good looking fish, beautiful colors, a sweetheart and a real treat to photograph. I love when wild animals show interesting behavior, and come in close. It is my favorite thing to experience when I am out in nature.

Well my friends, since I do not have any exciting images of whales to post for the day, I will end this blog, and hopefully have an epic ending to our adventure for you all tomorrow.

Thank you so much for reading. It means a lot to me that you do.

A Beautiful, but Tough Day at Sea.

Day Four of our sperm whale expedition off Dominica was ok. We found the sperm whales, but they are still a bit skittish from yesterday’s pilot whale visit. Most of the whales have moved out into deeper waters. A bit too far for us to follow, so we didn’t try to find them.

We did have a pod still hanging around, but this group is unknown and did not want anything to do with us. We tried a few jumps, but the animals kept their distance. We did get a few jumps in with them, but nothing like our previous days. So we decided to leave them alone and try and find a friendlier pod.

Sadly we did not have any luck.

During the down time, our friends Tatiana and Graeme recorded some clips for a project they are working on.

We did get a few jumps in with them, but nothing like our previous days. We had some fun passes (while we were on the boat), from spotted, and Frasier’s dolphins., thats always fun. Plus we were in good company, so it was a nice day... But hoping for some better action tomorrow.

We still have two more days. Hoping the sperm whales return so we can finish up this trip with a bang.

Until tomorrow, thanks for reading.

The Wolves Are Back!!!

Day three of our expedition and everything was different. The sperm whales were not very friendly. One of the whales lifted its tail out of the water and slammed it hard on the ocean's surface. This was the first time I had seen them do that.

When it did that, I didn't overthink about it. I just excitedly grabbed my topside camera, hoping it was going to do it again. I thought it was being playful… it wasn't.

It was a warning to back off.

We, of course, find out why the sperm whales were on edge. The pilot whales were around. It was a pod of about 25-30 strong. Pilot whales are dangerous predators for baby sperm whales, so it makes sense why they behaved the way they did.

This was the reason we had so much trouble finding sperm whales during our May trip earlier this season, the pilot whales were there almost every day and the whales were spooked.

So we decided to leave the sperm whales alone and spent the rest of the day with the pilot whales, and damn, what a good day it was. They were highly social and allowed us many opportunities to see them up close.

I really like these whales. They are cool looking, and you can see them thinking when they look at you. I really wish I could understand what they were thinking because you can almost feel it when they come in close.

It was fun, and we jumped in a lot with them. The big males are the most curious, and when they come in for a look, they come in close. The moms and calves are more nervous about us and try to keep their distance.

We spent a good two hours with the whales before we called it a day. With each jump, they were getting further and further away from the island, moving into the Atlantic. Hopefully, they were just passing through and had no plans of staying. If they stay, it will make interactions with the sperm whales more challenging.

Let's just see what tomorrow brings. Until then, thanks for reading.

Day Two Was A Lot of Fun.

sperm whales poop before they dive down to the depths.

Day two on the water. It was a good day, and the weather stayed beautiful all day. I am super happy about that. We immediately found the Utensils group of sperm whales and decided to stay with this pod all day. There are quite a few pods around; some are not as friendly.

The utensils pod is one of the friendlier pods in this area, so we stayed with them, hoping that we would be treated to some epic interactions when they were done hunting for the day. Sadly the pod spent the entire day hunting, so all our interactions with the whales were very short.

It was still fun, but we are hoping for some solid interactions with the whales when they socialize. That is the stuff of dreams. The whales will play and roll and bite each other. Playfully, of course. It is a hell of a thing to witness and what I hope our guests will experience. It is pure magic when it happens.

We still have four days left, so hopefully, we will have an opportunity to see the whales interacting.

At the end of the day, we were motoring over to a whale that had just surfaced when we heard a loud bang. Sadly our motor died. A piston rod broke and tore a big hole in the engine block. So we had to have our boat towed in. She is a good little boat, and we will miss her. We will head out tomorrow on her sister ship. It is a bit bigger and slower, but she will do. As long as we find the whales, it is all good!

Heading out tomorrow a bit later in the morning to change things up and see if we can get some socializing whales. Fingers crossed.

Thank you for reading.

Dominica... Day One was a Good Day.

Sperm whale briefing before we headed out to sea.

I am back in Dominica for another week of sperm whale diving. I really like this place. I mean, what is not to like… a beautiful island with resident populations of sperm whales.

The place is HEAVEN.

Today was day one of our trip, and I am super happy to report that we had fun encounters with some friendly whales. The whales were hunting today, so we did not spend much time with them. When the whales are hunting, they go down and spend between 45 minutes to an hour at depth hunting squids. When they finally do come up, it is short.

They come up for around ten minutes, replenish their oxygen supply, and possibly help feed the youngsters in the family pod. Young sperm whales cannot go as deep as the adults, so they stay shallow, listening for sonar clicks from the adults below, to follow them around.

Sperm whales live in pods, except the males; they are solitary, or form bachelor groups. The sperm whales in a pod all help to raise the young. Each female will feed milk to any baby in their pod that is too young to hunt for themselves. It is wonderful.

The morning was fantastic. The seas were calm, and the sun was out. It was a great start. But that quickly ended when a tropical depression moved through the area in the late afternoon.. and just like that, our beautiful day ended.

Thankfully the storm passed towards the end of the day. We had a good morning with plenty of whale action in good light and pretty water. It was an excellent start to the week. We returned to port in the middle of the storm, and we all rushed to our rooms to dry up and download our images and video from today.

Day one was a success… looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings.

Until then, thanks for reading.

The Adventure Begins... Day One on Dominica 2022!

May 1, 2022 - Day One of Dominica was a good day. We got skunked for sperm whales, but we still had a fantastic day at sea.

We spent quite a few hours searching for sperm whales in the morning. Sadly there were no signs of any whales. No clicks on the hydrophone, no blows in the distance… nada. We did encounter a small pod of pygmy killer whales, but they disappeared just as quickly as they had appeared.

Finally, our captain saw a few dorsal fins in the distance and motored over. It was a pod of pilot whales swimming slowly along the surface. We quickly got ready and jumped in. The pod was extremely curious and came in close to look at us. I was guessing around ten individuals, turned out it was more… a lot more. We guesstimated around 20 - 25 whales in this group.

We took turns jumping in with them and had an amazing two-hour session with these beautiful whales. This was my first real-time spent with this predatory species, and I was trying to soak them in and learn as much as I could about them.

The pilot whales were swimming very slowly and in no real direction. They were all spread out, just swimming in what seemed like a big wide circle, doing random patterns. I do not know a lot, but what I am guessing and what makes the most sense to me was that they seemed be hunting.

Possibly hunting giant squid below, using sonar to detect when a squid rises from the deep, or maybe they were hunting a deep water whale, like a beaked whale or something. Not sure, but on our final jump of the day, the whales all gathered up close, and then one of them let out a whistle, and they all dove down deep and disappeared. We did not hear the whistle when we were in the water, but I captured the whistle on my gopro and the whales all dove right after. It was awesome.

We didn’t get sperm whales today, but the ocean gave us a unique and wonderful gift for our first day in Dominica. I can’t wait for tomorrow.