
Rare Video Captures Sperm Whale in Deep Sea - curtis
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/150415-sperm-whale-deep-sea-video-rov-gulf-mexico-nautilus-ballard-science/
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foz
I loved this video not so much for the whale, but because of the audio
commentary from the scientists. It's so inspiring to listen to a really great
team react to something like that. They clearly work brilliantly together, and
with humor.

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aaronharnly
I'm charmed that they sound about as nerdy and astonished as I and my friends
would if dropped into the same situation.

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azinman2
Super nerdy

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bglazer
The shots of the whale and ROV together (that I guess are from a camera
attached to the tether) are hauntingly beautiful.

Here's a couple fun fact about sperm whales:

They have the largest brain among all animals living and extinct (17lbs!).

Scientists can estimate the size of sperm whales based on analysis of the
clicks they generate for echolocation. [1]

[http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1991....](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1991.tb04807.x/abstract;jsessionid=36C2A47EFF5709CDF643E230296EDB72.f03t01)

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skywhopper
I went on a whale-watching cruise last winter, and we were lucky enough that
one of the humpbacks came very close to our ship and even went under it close
enough to the surface that we could see it clearly. Obviously the crowd of
non-scientist tourists who were expecting to just see some flukes and fins off
in the distance were oohing and aahing like crazy. It was really thrilling and
exciting.

So it's heartwarming and hilarious and wonderful to hear _exactly_ the same
reactions out of the marine scientists watching this video feed showing this
highly curious sperm whale. It's worth watching just to get that buzz of joy.

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snowwrestler
Interesting to see that the whale seems to have no preferred orientation. When
first spotted it is "inverted" (belly up) with respect to the video screen's
orientation, and then in the rest of the video it faces all sorts of different
directions as it swims near the ROV.

Almost all the footage I've seen of whales is near the surface, where they do
tend to maintain one "upright" orientation--probably because that it the
orientation in which it is easiest for them to breathe.

And now that I think about it, most of the footage I can remember of ocean
life shares those two characteristics: shot near the surface, and most animals
seem to prefer "upright" orientations. When was the last time you saw video of
a shark or fish swimming upside down? Wonder if there is a connection there.
Maybe the sun? It's pitch black at 2,000 feet.

On the other hand, seals and sea lions stay close to the surface and like to
swim upside down.

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curtis
Sperm whales sometimes sleep in a vertical position:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sperm_whale#Sleeping](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sperm_whale#Sleeping)

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MRSallee
Not to be vulgar, but a dead sperm whale washed up on a beach in Pacifica,
Californa on Tuesday, just 15 minutes south of SF.

[http://flic.kr/p/s7qCvj](http://flic.kr/p/s7qCvj)

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icpmacdo
Do they still blow them up?

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MRSallee
I don't know that it was every common to blow them up. There's a news report
from the '70s, widely watched on YouTube, of a whale carcass exploded by
dynamite in Oregon. It didn't go well for them.

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r0muald
You can read more about the “Exploding whale” on Wikipedia, too
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_whale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_whale)

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ende
Wow, I knew they could hold their breath for awhile but 90 mins? Depths of
3000 feet? Evolution is a poweful optimizer.

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wmeredith
It's had a lot of cycles :)

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DyslexicAtheist
"video is currently unavailable"

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runarberg
You can see the video here
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkBpummjR5I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkBpummjR5I)

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degenerate
Cheesy with the added elevator music. Original link is better :)

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rodrigoavie
Wow, thanks for sharing. I wish I could live something like this, didn't even
have to be such a rare animal. A humpback whale would do :)

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pvaldes
This animal seems to be really puzzled by the ROV. Is a male. Young, probably.
Literally scanning slowly the machine with his head and wondering what's that
thing. A ultrasound recording should give us an burst of clicks.

Really nice video, with also some deep-sea plancton. Maybe apendicularia or
hydrozoan jellyfishes. I feel really jealous now.

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nosage
Amazing, thank you for sharing!

