What we are particularly interested in detecting are the clicks made by sperm whales. Sperm whales echolocate through a complex broadband clicking system and exchange what are thought to be socially significant messages through special patterns of clicks, or codas. The special ‘Rainbow Click’ software developed by IFAW allows us to locate animals that we might not necessarily see as we traverse the oceans, sometimes tens of kilometers from the ship.

For all their immense size, sperm whales are difficult to study and estimates as to how many there are in the world’s oceans vary considerably. Estimating whale populations is notoriously tricky, as not all whales on a transect will be detected by observers and they are not distributed evenly throughout the oceans. What we hope is that with Russell’s assistance we can set up a system for logging sperm whales and produce useful data with regards to their distribution while the ship makes its long ocean transits, so adding to our knowledge of this incredible animal.