Sperm whales are in dire straits, but there is a new safe haven for them in the Caribbean. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
There are an enormous number of animals on Earth that are having a difficult time surviving. Tigers, rhinos, dolphins, leopards, orangutans, vaquitas, an untold number of insects, whales… the list is a long one. But for one kind of whale, there is bit of sanctuary: the world’s first marine protected area for the endangered sperm whale.
Since things began living on our planet, there have been five mass extinction events. The last one happened about 65 million years ago — a blink of an eye on the geologic time scale — and that was when the dinosaurs were wiped off the face of the Earth. A mass extinction event, as the World Wildlife Federation describes it, is a “short period of geological time in which a high percentage of biodiversity, or distinct species—bacteria, fungi, plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates—dies out.” Many researchers believe that we’re in the midst of a sixth mass extinction event, but unlike the other five, this one is mostly happening because of us and our wanton lust for a life that involves the smallest amount of effort possible.
In our quest for that ease of living, we drag the oceans, cut down forests for agriculture, suck up as much fresh water as we possibly can, and slurp fossil fuels out of the ground. For the average person, there’s not much we can do about it (voting, I guess?), but despite the best intentions of many, it’s tough to stand up to industries that our entire society depends on to maintain our way of living. The sperm whale is just one of many animals that is finding us to be terrible housemates.
Sperm whales were doing just fine until the 1800s, when we started hunting them. We kept it up until about the 1970s, and in that time, we came very, very close to making them extinct. We killed them for their oil, their fat, and their bones, and we killed them at a pretty extraordinary rate.
Now that hunting sperm whales is basically illegal (a few places still allow it), the sperm whale has a number of new threats. Ship strikes, fishing gear entanglement, and eating things we’ve carelessly chucked in the ocean is further driving the population decline, especially in the Mediterranean. While sperm whales are officially listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, one genetically distinct Mediterranean subpopulation is listed as Endangered. There are thought to be only 2,500 of them left, which is an alarmingly low number.
But the little Caribbean island of Dominica has created a safe haven for them. “Nearly 300 square miles (800 square kilometers) of royal blue waters on the western side of the island nation that serve as key nursing and feeding grounds will be designated as a reserve,” the Associated Press reported.
Sperm whales, like basically every other animal on Earth, are an important piece of the puzzle that enables the environment to work as it should. Not only that, but they’re incredibly smart. Although it’s tough to perform any research into just how smart sperm whales in particular are, we have done plenty on smaller cetaceans like dolphins, and it’s not a stretch to assume that sperm whales are in the same league.
“Because dolphins and whales (such as the sperm whale) possess many of the same abilities and cognitive skills,” wrote WhaleFacts.org, “it is likely that many of these same mental strengths also exist among the sperm whale species.”
Scientists are hopeful that the new reserve will do two things in particular: protect the sperm whales and help fight climate change.
“We want to ensure these majestic and highly intelligent animals are safe from harm and continue keeping our waters and our climate healthy,” Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said in a statement. They’ve got an interesting way of contributing to the general well-being of the planet: their poop.
“Sperm whales defecate near the surface because they shut down non-vital functions when they dive to depths of up to 10,000 feet (3,000 meters),” the Associated Press explained. “As a result, nutrient-rich poop remains along the ocean surface and creates plankton blooms, which capture carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and drag it to the ocean floor when they die.”
The sperm whales that stick around Dominica, for whatever reason, poop more there than anywhere else. Although no one knows for sure exactly why that is, researchers have theorized that there is more available food in that particular part of the ocean.
There are thought to be fewer than 500 sperm whales living in Dominica’s waters. They are part of a group that travels through the Lesser Antilles chain, and in contrast to other sperm whales, they don’t generally travel far from the waters they call home. They also don’t reproduce all that often, which adds yet another hurdle in their fight for survival. Sperm whales only produce one calf every five-so-years, so each whale is extraordinarily important to the survival of the species as a whole.
“One calf being entangled can mean the end of a family,” said Shane Gero, a whale biologist and founder of the Dominica Sperm Whale Project. According to Gero, there are less than half the number of sperm whales swimming around now than there were in the days before we started killing them.
The Dominica reserve will still allow fishing, but only “sustainable artisanal fishing.” An international shipping lane will be changed in an effort to avoid the all-too-common ship strikes, as well. Visitors will be able to take trips out to see the whales, but only in small boats and in very limited numbers.
“The government of Dominica has realized that the sperm whales, which were probably here before humans, are also citizens of Dominica,” said Enric Sala, an explorer-in-residence at National Geographic. “These whales will spend most of the year offshore the island. So, they are taking care of some of their citizens in a way that few nations have ever done before.”
