As we are now approaching the middle of autumn, sperm whales are again migrating over the deep trench between the islands of Ikaria, Chios, and Samos, a migration that we have been recording them making for the past two decades.
At a time when we have every reason to worry about the survival of marine species due to overfishing, increasing pollution and so many other threats caused by humans, the presence of sperm whales, the giants of our seas, gives us hope that it is not yet too late to efficiently protect our seas.
The sperm whale is the largest toothed whale in the world, with males measuring up to 18 meters and weighing up to 57 tons. Sperm whales are also remarkably one of the many species that wisely manages its food stocks without depleting it. Even though they need 0.5 to 1 ton of food per day (which they find in deep waters where humans do not yet fish), their constant migratory movements gives their food stocks a chance to recover.
This is an obvious principle, but we humans, who consider ourselves to be highly intelligent, are unable to comprehend it, even in the era of the environmental and climate crises.
