Whales and New Jersey: Sperm Whales

Although New Jersey probably isn't the first place that comes to mind when people think of the home of whales, our 127 miles of coastline certainly sees many of them offshore.

If you have witnessed firsthand a whale surfacing from the deeps of an ocean, it is surely memorable. With their tremendous size and sometimes surprising gracefulness, whales still are somewhat of a mystery to even scientists who study them.

Whales are still hunted globally, but they are also protected in some parts of the world. Atlantic.

Six species of whales are protected when they are in New Jersey waters because they are Federally Endangered.

Whale, North Atlantic right**	Eubalaena glacialis**
Whale, blue**	Balaenoptera musculus**
Whale, fin**	Balaenoptera physalus**
Whale, humpback**	Megaptera novaeangliae**
Whale, sei**	Balaenoptera borealis**
Whale,sperm**	Physeter macrocephalus**
**Federally Endangered

Cetaceans is the order that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. It is divided into
two suborders: Odontoceti and Mysticeti.

Odonoceti have teeth and a single blowhole, or nostril, at the top of the head. The sperm whale is in this suborder.

The Mysticetes, or baleen whales, have no teeth and two blowholes. Instead of teeth, great plates of horny baleen, which extend from the upper jaw, are used to strain
food from large mouthfuls of water. The other five species listed here are in that suborder.

I will take a brief look at those whale species in posts over the next few months as we head to the Jersey shore and gaze into the Atlantic - and maybe even do some whale watching.

Mother and baby sperm whale - Wikimedia

Sperm whales (Family Physeteridae) are best known as the nemesis of Captain Ahab in Herman Melville's Moby Dick. There are not many reports of sperm whales attacking ships these days.

They are in the suborder of Odonoceti and so they have teeth. They also have a single blowhole, and the sperm whale is the only one in that suborder that regularly produces a visible spout or blow. The whaling ship cry of "Thar she blows" comes from the hunting of the sperm whale for its once very valuable oil. The blowhole is far left of the center and far forward on the head, and emits a distinctive spout that is bushy and angled sharply forward.

Sperm whale spout  - via Flickr

These whales have a distinctive jaw that both recedes and is located directly under the head's center. This huge head extends a quarter to a third of its entire length, which can be as much as 21 m (69 ft.).

The sperm whale's skin, a dark brownish gray, looks corrugated. Two-thirds of the way
back from the snout the whale has a distinguishing dorsal hump; behind that are a number
of bumps. The sperm whale has a keel on its belly, and the flukes, or sides of the flat tail,
are broad, triangular and heavily notched at their back edges.

Sperm whales are usually observed in deep waters, far from most coastlines, and are not usually encountered within New Jersey’s coastal waters. According to the New Jersey Endangered and Nongame Species Program, there are no sightings currently documented within New Jersey waters for this species

MORE INFO
conservewildlifenj.org
njfishandwildlife.com/ensp/pdf/end-thrtened/whales.pdf

Endangered Whales Off The NJ Coast

There are nine mammals protected as endangered in NJ, and six of those are whales.

All six are also Federally Endangered, and so they are protected by Federal laws while off the coast of New Jersey.

Those 6 whale species are:

1. North Atlantic northern right whale (or Black right whale), balaena glacialis
2. Blue Whale, balaenoptera musculus
3. Fin Whale, balaenoptera physalus
4. Humpback Whale, megaptera novaeangliae
5. Sei Whale, balaenoptera borealis
6. Sperm whale, physeter macrocephalus

Cetaceans is the order that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. It is then divided into two suborders: Odontoceti and Mysticeti.

Odonoceti have teeth and a single blowhole (nostril) at the top of the head. The sperm whale is well known, if only from pictures and movies, for being one that regularly produces a visible spout or blow.

(Photo of right whale skim feeding via The Whale Center of New England)

The Mysticetes are the baleen whales. The other 5 listed here are baleen whales. That means they have no teeth and filter their food through their baleen. They also have two blowholes.

Baleen is made of the same material as our fingernails and hair, and has been described to the touch as similar to thick plastic hair. The baleen plates overlap each other and hang from the upper jaw of the whale. (They are sometimes compared to vertical blinds.) Each plate is frayed on the bottom and edges so that they mat together and help trap food. Right whales have the longest baleen.

My childhood fascination with whales has never faded, so I will write more about each species here in the months to come. I also admit to listing Melville's Moby Dick in my five books list despite its portrayal of whale hunting.