Welcome to NATURE on the Web. Each week, we present a Web piece based on the program scheduled to be aired on PBS. NATURE dives to the depths of the sea with SPERM WHALES, massive marine mammals who inhabit the world's oceans. Learn the facts behind the mystique of the sperm whale, the mammal immortalized by Herman Melville in MOBY DICK. In a special Q and A interview, meet whale researcher ...

American Cetacean Society Cetacean Fact Sheet -- Sperm Whale ...

The Firecracker Whale A Compilation of Available Information on Kogia breviceps The Pygmy Sperm Whale by M. Maxwell A. Newman, with assistance from Gary C. Newman Fairbanks, Alaska - April 15, 1996 Last updated December 20, 2001 Abstract This paper examines the body of available information on kogia breviceps, commonly known as the pygmy sperm whale. Research from strandings of pygmy sperm ...

Sperm Whale Physeter catodon The sperm whale, or cachalot, is one of the cetaceans, a group of marine mammals whose ancestors were probably land animals. Large males attain a length of 20 m and weigh as much as 50 tons. They range across most of the world s oceans, but they are most usually found in those latitudes inhabited by the giant squid which is their favourite source of prey. The whale ...

The Sperm Whale His legs trapped in the whale's mouth, Nye felt himself dragged under the sea . (Copyright Lee Krystek 1998) March 1863: The long boat approached the sperm whale slowly. On board Peleg Nye, of Cape Cod, readied his bomb lance harpoon. Taking careful aim, he fired at the massive creature's blue-black skin. The animal struggled, then stopped. Thinking the whale was dead , the crew ...

The sperm whale is the largest toothed whale and lives in pods. It grows to be about 50 feet (15 m) long. It lives at the surface but dives very deeply to catch the giant squid that it eats.