CHENNAI: An eight tonne, 35-feet long sperm whale was washed ashore at Kokilamedu on Friday. This is the fourth of the species found dead near the city in the past two months.
“This one had an injury in its dorsal fin. It must’ve been hit by a boat,” said Supraja Dharinin of TREE Foundation. The carcass was found by villagers of Kokilamedu, who immediately informed the Foundation.
Based on the information given by members from the Sea Turtle Protection Force, Supraja identified the whale as a sperm whale. “Its flippers were short, broad and rounded at the tip, the large head with the clearly visible single large blow hole and the teeth in the lower jaw confirmed it as a sperm whale,” she said.
The giant sperm whale or Cachalot, is the largest of the toothed whale predators. The sperm whale is the only living member of genus Physeter, and one of three extant species in the sperm whale family. Sperm whales are easily recognised by their massive heads and prominent rounded foreheads. Their heads also hold large quantities of a substance called spermaceti.
They have the largest brain of any creature known to have lived on earth, and are also one of the biggest and powerful aquatic mammals. Their highly evolved hunting strategy and precise SONAR communications make sperm whales deadly predators.
Sperm whales are known to dive as deep as 3,280 feet (1,000 metres) in search of squid to eat. These giant mammals hold their breath for up to 90 minutes on such dives, where they are known to be in search of squids.
These toothed whales eat thousands of pounds of fish and close to a ton(907 kg) of squid everyday day. The other similar looking, but much smaller whales along the Chennai coast are the pygmy sperm whale and dwarf sperm whale of the genus Kogia.
The sperm whales get their name from Spermaceti (literally meaning the sperm of the whale). By-products of the whale include Ambergris or Amber, which was used as a fixative for perfume before the ban.
