Sperm Whale - day 9

 Back to see the Sperm whale a few times and its good to see that it appears to be getting stronger. 

I watched it for about 2.5 hours and although it spent all the time in the upper reaches of the voe it was alot more active, diving and stronger blows

Today is day 9, amazing its still there as it should be in deep water off to the west on the contential shelf. It eats squid but those monitoring the whale have said it perhaps hadn't eaten since coming into the voe, this is not uncommon.

They can dive down to 10,000 feet spending two hours on the dive, which is amazing. 

Sperm Whales have the biggest head and brain on the planet. Their brains 5x times heavier than a humans.

They have occasionally attacked Killer Whales, none have been seen aound these parts for weeks, spending most of the time up north around Yell, Unst and the north mainland.

They can have a life span of 70 year so we are hoping it can get back out to sea and increase its chances of achieving an old age.

This whale has been estimated at around 45 feet long, but they can go up to nearly 70 feet long, with the head being a 1/3 of the size. Moby- Dick was said to be 85 feet long.

The blowhole is located to the left of the head and gives a distinctive blow that way, a good way to ID the whale.

Blow hole

I restricted myself to just taken 1200 photos, well worth it too

Later tonight i received information that it was moving back out of the voe, past Nesbister bod where it beached briefly on day two.

Shetland Sperm Whale

On Monday a large whale was reported off of Hamnavoe,Burra first it was identified as a Humpback Whale but other observers quickly on site confirmed it as a large Sperm whale

It then disappeared turning up in Whiteness Voe just up the coast

Then it was found further south near to Nesbister bod where it has stayed since. It has been estimated that it is over 45 feet long, these can go up to 60 feet in length.

It has a blow hole slightly to one side of the head so its very distinctive when blowing. I could easily hear this even though it was mid channel

It had been seen the night before very weak near the coast and people thought it wouldn't survive the night.

Early yesterday it was found south of the bod giving hope it would survive but again by mid morning it was well up the voe

It really should be in very deep water, not the shallower waters of this voe

Its a very rare sight to see a live Sperm whale, most are dead animals 

A steady stream of visitors arrived on both sides of the voe

It had a lot of scars and markings on it skin, may be from other whales but easily could have been from coming into contact with rocks

 Today the whale is still in the same area but appears stronger and moving about  a lot more than earlier in the week

a short video in windy conditions