Found: Two sperm whales who were already identified by our marine biologists

This is news that is only possible thanks to the research of our team of biologists!
On one of our whale and dolphin watching tours this year, we were lucky enough to recognize two sperm whales that already have identification in our sperm whale catalogue.

See these two photos?

On the first look, nothing special, but notice the details of the upper part of the tails. Can you see similarities? We can say that they are tails of the same sperm whale.
The second photo is from January 29, 2022, and corresponds to the same individual as the first photo from 2011!!

11 years separate these two photographs.

In the first one, we see the female sperm whale Danielle that is part of our Z catalog (it is the catalog of animals we see less often). The last time she was seen was in 2011, as can be read in the caption. And you might be asking, “Does Danielle have a new cut on the right side of her tail fin? Yes, it’s true! There are several behaviors that may have caused this cut, namely encounters with other species, such as sharks or orcas.
The wear and tear of swimming is another reason that the shape of the tail changes over time due to sea friction. If we think about it, the tips of the flags on the boats or even the buoys in the sea, they wear out over time, result of the salty sea and the wind. This is what can also happen to sperm whales’ tails, and they are natural reasons.
In this specific case, we can say that it is a cut caused by a bite from another animal.

The photo shown below corresponds to another individual that is also identified in the sperm whale catalog. In addition to having a perfect heart in the middle of its tail, this sperm whale (which we have not yet been able to confirm if it is female or male) has no name because so far it has only been sighted once on 05-23-2015.

It is identified in our catalog as Pm299. What if you chose a name for this sperm whale?
Here are some of our suggestions:
– Heart
– Mustaches
– Janny

Thank you for following us! And have a look at our research we’ve been doing in the last years about sperm whales.