Sperm whale pod surfacing, Dominica
© Franco Banfi/Minden Picture
Taking a breather. World Whale Day
Ahoy there, giants of the sea! World Whale Day is surfacing yet again, along with these sperm whales off the coast of the Caribbean island of Dominica. Established in 1980 in Maui, the day originally aimed to celebrate the humpback whales in Hawaiian waters and has evolved into a global event advocating for the conservation of all whale species.
The planet's 92 whale species are split between baleen whales and toothed whales. Baleen whales use bristle-like mouth parts to filter krill from the water. The sperm whales pictured here, like the other 76 toothed species, use cone-shaped teeth to attack their prey. Unlike baleen whales, they hunt and navigate using echolocation, a method that uses sound to detect the things around them. Sperm whales also happen to have the largest brain of any animal on Earth! A whale's large brain-to-body mass ratio means that their intelligence is no fluke.
Related Images
A pod of narwhals near Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada
Giant manta ray and a photographer off the Ningaloo Coast, Australia
Adélie penguin in Graham Passage, Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica
Emperor penguins in the Ross Sea, Antarctica
Young humpback whale giving its mother a hug off the coast of Tonga
Galápagos sea lion off the shore of Fernandina Island, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
Sperm whale off the coast of Roseau, Dominica, in the Caribbean Sea
Long-beaked common dolphin pod and diving Cape gannets hunting Pacific sardines off the Eastern Cape, South Africa
Bing Today Images
