Tribewanted: Vorovoro

When I was on the island we saw a whale very close to Vorovoro and Mali – definitely demonstrating strange behavior for a whale. It was too close to shore, too shallow, and not diving deep unless the boat got really close – all signs of it being sick. I have some photos I can post from our trip to Survivor Island – we got very close to it that day.

There are about 12 species of whales in Fijian waters – recently Fiji named its EEZ (exclusive economic zone) waters a sanctuary for whales.

According to the World Wildlife Fund:
“The warm waters are also important migratory routes for 12 species of whale. 4 of these species, the Blue whale, Sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis), the Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) and Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), are considered to be endangered or vulnerable. In 2003, the Fiji government offered protection to these species by declaring Fiji’s territorial waters as a whale sanctuary.”

So I was a bit perplexed trying to decide which of 12 species this whale might be. Now that it was washed ashore in Mali (thanks to Kia’a ii for sending me the article) http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=79180
we know it was a toothed whale which narrows it down a bit, and it mentions that there were only teeth in the bottom jaw, and luckily enough for us trying to identify it sperm whales typically only have teeth in their lower jaws – and considering what I saw of its fluke in the picture from the Fiji times and its dorsal surface on the reef trip, I’d say Mali has a sperm whale on its shores. (This has been later confirmed by more pictures and the newspaper.)

Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus=bighead) are the deepest diving of all whales, diving down to great depths to eat the large squid that live in those waters (1000m for one hour). The article stated 22m – that largest male sperm whale is 16m, but newspapers and whalewatchers tend to exaggerate. They have a unique squared off head that distinguishes them from other whales. Males migrate to the warm waters for breeding, while females and calves may stay in topical waters year round.

Fun facts:
These whales aren’t named from their outstanding performance in the bedroom, it’s because in their large square heads they have spermaceti oil, a substance long prized by whalers.

The population is estimated to be between 200,000 and 1.5 million due to poor data, so scientists aren’t sure if they are endangered or not, but the birth rate is lower and size of males is smaller now due to the whaling years ago.

More info on sperm whales:
http://www.acsonline.org/factpack/spermwhl.htm
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/mammals/cetaceans/spermwhale.htm

Recent update: Been following along with the Fiji times online. They had to burn the whale because of the smell and they couldn’t afford to drag it out to sea. The paper was still talking about how the top teeth were taken so I emailed them to let them know the sperm whales don’t have upper teeth – at least the people of Mali and Malau won’t be suspicious of someone getting to the whale before them.