Voices in the deep

Wade Hughes · Issue 88, Jan/Feb 2016 · pp. 56–61

Products mentioned: Canon 5D Mk III, Canon 7D Mk II, Nauticam housing, Zen mini-dome, Canon 8-15mm fisheye zoom, Kenko 1.4x extender, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM

It was an unusual, eerie, encounter. In cold, greenish water, clouded by plankton blooms, and the tiny pulsing invertebrate salps, feeding on them, the sperm whales were milling round. Slowly, ponderously, some were sinking head-first and disappearing into the haze beneath me. Others were rising from the depths, rejoining those on the surface, then dissolving away into the distance. Two drifted in from behind me, so close that their sudden bulks, appearing at my shoulder startled me. Constant chattering – strings of clicks and creaks – passed between the whales. One phrase, if such a human term is appropriate for describing sperm whale communication, seemed to be recurring. ‘Zizzzzzz…tuc tuc tuc”, is the best I can do at replicating it on paper. Louder and more sharply defined, it was, perhaps, emanating from the largest whale, a cow close to 11 metres in length. This cow appeared to be …