Elmer - no, he did not show any signs of aggression. He came within a few meters of me while the group swam by, but otherwise, seemed to stay on the outside of group interactions (with us).

This may look like a black plastic bag, but it's actually sperm whale skin, which is constantly being shed.

Awesome stuff!

I believe I would be adding quite redundant internal moisture to my wetsuit, were I in that position. And yes, I'm still envious. But I gotta admit, that would just have to be intimidating as heck! Them sperm whales ain't no baleen feeders....

amazing images all! - keep them coming!

Cor - "Human for scale" - WOW!

Here's a shot of the large bull in action:

This is just incredible!!! you all have incredible shots!!!

Could you explain a little more how the permit is obtained and what it comprehends? Thank you and congratulations again!!!

What else can I add. Superb encounters.

Tony, that last group shot is awesome, heck they all rock! Good job everyone.

Todd

Fantastic! Speechless! Envious!

Tony or Eric:
Any guess on how much bigger the large bull was than the females? Did you notice if it was mature enough to have a mouth with a full set of teeth?
Andy

why don't any of you use proper fins?

(yes i hate all of you)

I too hate them, and their silly fins.

But I love their photos.

Thanks for the love guys

Here's another. This gentle mouthing behaviour seems to be fairly common. Seems to be an important part of normal social interaction. Not aggressive at all.

Thanks for the images folks! I'm curious how much time you've been able to spend in the water with these guys. Are they moving and you jump in and snorkel ahead of them or do they sort of hang out in one area? I can understand that if a sperm whale decides to leave you it would be adios.

Cheers,
Steve

Guys when they are biting have you noticed more skin rubbing off? Just wondering from a behavior standpoint if its like play biting in dogs or they are removing parasites from the skin.

Jose

Steve: It really depends on their mood. Sometimes they swim too quickly to keep up. Sometimes they move at a leisurely pace. Sometimes they're dead still. Often they move just slowly enough to keep you swimming, but just quickly enough that you can't take a photograph!

Jose: They seem to be sloughing off skin constantly. Though when they're rubbing together, there's more, just due to body contact perhaps.

This shot is just amazing Tony.

Stew

Eric, et al,

Your photos are really, really great and you have been very fortunate to encounter pods each day out that are willing to allow you to photograph them. When we were in Dominica in November there were times when there were no pods in sight and times when the pods either swam away or dove when we encountered them. Are you being limited to the number of swimmers in the water at one time? Any other mature males showing up?

Elmer

Tony,

The top whale is scar, you can tell him from the deep vertical scar on the right cheek from the fishing nets when he was a youngster. It appears the female is getting him excited!

Elmer

We just eyeball it every time. Sometimes we send a lone snorkeler out to scope things out, sometimes 2 or 3. And if we're sure they're not bothered all 5 of us go out.

One from today.

I didn't think they could get any better but I was wrong. Cor that is unbelievably beautiful.

Elmer,

You're the first person to notice!

All I can do today is post photos. We swam most of the day. My body aches!! Good night!

Oh -- we met Simon and Izzy of Images Dominica last night. They're on Wetpixel as well and will hopefully come say hi.


Two sperm whales enter a shallow dive in Dominica.. Photo taken under permit.


Two sperm whales at the surface. Dominica.. Photo taken under permit.


Two sperm whales at the surface. Dominica.. Photo taken under permit.


A sperm whale calf sticks his fluke up out of the water in preparation for a tail slap. Dominica.. Photo taken under permit.


A sperm whale in Dominica.. Photo taken under permit.


A sperm whale hangs vertically in the water. Dominica.. Photo taken under permit.


A sperm whale calf in Dominica.. Photo taken under permit.

So, we've mentioned that Scar is incredibly friendly. Photos of him have been posted on Wetpixel by quite a few people already, but here are a couple more of Andrew getting close to his cetacean buddy:

A life changing experience I imagine....

Here are a couple more from our encounter yesterday. A head-on and tail-on shot of a juvenile sperm whale:

These images continue to amaze! Tony-that head on is superb!

Jealous-hell yes!

Please keep on posting pure inspiration!

Adam

Awesome shots guys. Guess we missed each other by just hours! I'm going to have to get out with Andrew from now on! If you haven't tried Pearls for lunch I highly recommend it. Only open for lunch M-F but far and away best place around. Oh, and if you have a few minutes to take a drive to the hot springs at Teekwaonglogo (I'm sure I spelled that wrong) Say Hi to Henry and June and be sure to sample the Peanut Rum, it's fantastic.

Hope I meet up with you guys in Dominica one day in the future!

Jake

We have finished our 6 days on the water here in Dominica, and will be headed home later on today. Our last day was probably a rather typical winter day with the whales here in Dominica, which is to say that we weren't dropped into a social group within an hour of leaving dock (as we have been on previous days!). We went around the south part of the island into unprotected waters and watched whales from the surface, but were not really able to work with them successfully.

Tony and I were interviewed for local TV last night, and I stressed that Dominica's healthy reefs and clear water will probably not be seen by underwater photographers (other than the cruise ship happy-snappy people) until the transportation problem here is fixed. American Eagle has strict limits on baggage, and leaving here requires an overnight in San Juan. It takes me longer to get to and from Dominica than it does for me to get to Bali, and even if it were possible to get dive gear and camera rig here via indirect international check-in, it might be impossible to get the gear out.

It has been an incredible adventure, and I will certainly be back one day

A few more photos:


Over/under image of a juvenile sperm whale in Dominica (Physeter macrocephalus). Photo taken under permit.


A juvenile sperm whale gets close! (Physeter macrocephalus). Dominica. Photo taken under permit.


7 sperm whales in a social group (Physeter macrocephalus). Dominica. Photo taken under permit.


Emiko Miyazaki photographs a group of sperm whales in Dominica (Physeter macrocephalus). Photo taken under permit.


Bulbous frond view of a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus). Dominica. Photo taken under permit.


Over/under image of three sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) in Dominica Photo taken under permit.


Over/under image of twp sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) in Dominica Photo taken under permit.


Two sperm whales in a shallow dive, Dominica. (Physeter macrocephalus). Photo taken under permit.

Mikey - we would have loved to bring proper fins, but they are way too long for my dive bag! I haven't figured out a good way to travel with long fins yet...

You guys made it into one of the UK tabloids today. Well done and thanks for all the great daily videos - photos and reports.

Stew

Stew - very cool! In print? We've seen the online versions, but not the print versions.

We had a nice farewell dinner last night:


Group photo at dinner: Ricardo, Cor, Julie, Tony, Emiko, Curt, Rhona, me, Gabriel and Andrew

Goodbye, Dominica!

Besides the limited baggage on American Eagle from Dominica at least you have free WiFi at the airport.

But you should beware of TSA in San Juan, they will make you empty your camera bag so that your housing, camera get x-rayed separately. Allow time to repack.

Elmer

Here you go Eric and Tony. I dont know if they had permission to print it.

Stew

PS sorry about the size of it, but i have no software to resize on this old excuse of a laptop

Thanks, Stew! I love that Andrew has become a Japanese woman in most of the articles.

Thanks for uploading the scan. We're sitting in the airport in Dominica, all typing madly away on our laptops

Managed to upload a cute story about Scar and a couple of juvenile whales to my blog just before leaving the hotel.

Eric & Tony

These are amazing pics. What are the permit requirement to interact with the whales in-water?

Regards
David

David - we arranged the permit through the Dominica fisheries department via our operator.