A sperm whale, the world’s largest-toothed animal, showed up just 11 miles outside of the Long Beach Harbor this week, hanging out in 900 feet of water on Tuesday, April 9.
“It was amazing,” said Harbor Breeze Cruises Capt. Erik Combs. “That’s the beauty of whale watching, you never know what you’re in store for. When you come across something like this, it makes your day.”
Combs said he had told his crew earlier in the day that he had a hunch something special was going to show up. When he saw the blow of the sperm whale in the distance, he and the boat crew jumped with joy, he said.
He called the encounter “super rare.”
“It was a good feeling, the uniqueness of it,” he said. “They are so interesting looking, they are kind of weird and wrinkly, their blowhole is on the left side of their head. They look kind of prehistoric.”
Sperm whales are named for the waxy substance, called spermaceti, found in their head cavities. The spermaceti is an oil sac that helps the whales focus sound.
Sperm whales, which were the inspiration for the whale in “Moby Dick,” are said to have the biggest brains of any animal species and make the loudest sound of any animal on Earth.
They spend most of their time far from shore, typically foraging for food in deeper waters.
“They can hold their breath so long, they have epic battles with giant squid,” Combs said. “It’s a cool thing to see when you see it up close.”
The species’ population was decimated by whalers, who hunted them for their oil, once used in lamps, lubricants and candles. These days, there’s an estimated 200,000.
This particular whale was milling around the ocean surface, before taking a long, 30-minute dive deeper into the water.
“You don’t know when they will come up,” Combs said. “It was just kind of looking around for food.”
It’s not totally unheard of to see sperm whales off the coast, sometimes showing up once or twice a year, but other times years can pass without sightings. Sperm whales, when they do show up, typically stick around for a few days, so whale watching boats will be keeping their eyes open on the water, Combs said.
The gray whale season is coming to a close soon, with still some sightings of moms and calves cruising up from Mexico and back to their feeding grounds in Alaska. There’s also been recent fin and humpback sightings, and Combs said as summer approaches, blue whales could be making an appearance.
“It’s a good time,” he said, “to go whale watching.”