Rare Sperm Whale Encounter with ROV | Nautilus Live

At 598 meters (1,962 ft) below the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana, ROV Hercules encountered a magnificent sperm whale. The whale circled Hercules several times and gave our cameras the chance to capture some incredible footage of this beautiful creature. Encounters between sperm whales and ROVs are incredibly rare.

Edited by: Daniel Larsh

[justastrider]

Scientists: Woah! What is that!
Whale: Woah! What is that!

[Wayzor_]

This is what it sounds like when your job is what you love.

[ceejno]

The best part is that whale is investigating this weird thing in the deep and has no idea it's causing a bunch of primates on the surface to lose their shit.

[cuttlesquish]

I love that they decided to “wave” a little with the backboard. Such a human moment, to want to reach out and say hello in even the smallest way possible, even though chances are it wasn’t understood

[ultimateninjaboi]

This is a video of two species of mammals curiously examining one another. And I love it

[jordan_grey]

2:47 "We come in peace." This scientist is gold!

[modulator]

I love how this whale had absolute *perfect control of his buoyancy* – So he was able to inspect the ROV from ALL angles – including upside down, inverted - while slowing rotating on his longer axis. Simply amazing!

[stvbrsn]

I love how the whale seems just as comfortable head up, head down, vertical, horizontal, upside-down, diagonal, whatever. And so smooth and graceful as it changes its position.

[rosehill]

"I will signal him with the board"
"Im waving to the whale!"

[FrizFroz]

"It looks fake."
The whale must have been thinking the same thing about this strange metal creature too.

[thatguy]

I wish animals could know how much most people loved them

[Clint_Beastwood]

Listening to marine biologists makes me so happy, they always sound so wholesome. You can tell they're in a profession they love, a life full of meaning.

[mastery]

This is like finding a needle in a haystack.


Amazing how the whale can tolerate the crushing pressure at these depths!

[katiekawaii]

Two creatures, just trying to figure each other out. Incredible.

[mrrp]

What really impresses me is that the whale had time for this. The fact they can stay under for so long and so deep is completely unbelievable to me. I used to think that it must've always been a race for them, to conserve as much energy as possible, efficiently eat as much as they could and get back up, because that's how swimming and diving is for me(besides the eating part). But it's just leisurely circling the rover. Absolutely unreal and incredible footage. Thank you so much.

[jacobkleinsasser]

Here we see that some of the smartest people in the world, have almost childlike wonder when they see something magnificent.

[AMpersand_videos]

1:05
"I think we beat the other watch team."
That's the spirit.

[alejandroknippingreyes]

I love when the researchers get moments like this cause they deserve them, after all the had to study a LOT to get those PhD degrees and then most of their time is studying the biome it self and doing a ton of paper work

[Talhsoma]

That was a very cool encounter. My late wife would have loved this video. She worked with a whale research group in Newfoundland in the 80's. They studied, and photographed humpbacks mostly. How wonderful and lucky to see this creature in its natural environment.

[sweetlorikeet]

I love how whenever they find something really cool, scientists who work with other teams are just like "WE WIN AT SCIENCE, OUR SCIENCE WAS COOLER THAN YOUR SCIENCE TODAY"