Communicating with Atwood the Sperm Whale

A cooperative sperm whale responds to a signal to slow and stop, delighting her admirers.

[Colossus-Tone]

The language she is delivering is enormous. I felt it in my heart. Each click.

[henryc]

HELP.... I can’t stop watching these videos😁

[WanderingRoe]

Whales are so fascinating, they’re so intelligent and inquisitive. I wish we had a better understanding of their language lol

[calicoya]

She gets sleepy when she looked at you! 😂 I think she saw u as a friend ~ What a very nice experience ~ ❤️

[lachlanwelsh]

She looks like she almost fell asleep with the three of you so close! So relaxed!
Fantastic she trusts you so much!
Had to subscribe and will be getting my daughter to as well.

[tomwaite]

Fantastic! Whales have been on earth for tens of thousands of years with a very sophisticated language with the ability to send numerous messages simultaneously. We humans have been talking, how long?
What a wonderful clip, thanks for sharing.

[johnminehan]

Her comments translate to "Who wants to go for some scungelli? I know a good place."

[erictaylor]

I doubt she understood that you wanted her to slow down. More likely she slowed down because she was curious about you.
Still, it's very cool.

[monstermunch]

Wow your videos should have way more views

[yhird]

That is absolutely incredible. I am not surprised by her intelligence. Her brain is considerably larger than a human brain.

[CRER]

When they turn their bellies towards the divers they're actually using their echolocation more efficiently to get a sound picture of you, they barely even need eyes.

[boomer]

She's beautiful - and gentle. Did you know she has a 17 pound brain? So it doesn't surprise me that she could figure out what you are trying to communicate to her.

[MamaEtna]

Did I just see what I did? Watching it again. She understood your hand signal! This is a wild animal not a trained captive.

[ristube]

Looks like she was leaving the snorkelers a treat to swim through at :25 😜💩🐳

[justpassingbby]

Do the click hurt a little bit sometime? thank you for sharing this its amazing!

[eschwarz]

Where is this specifically? You are blessed to have such an experience.

[boomer]

I also wonder if the clicking of the camera makes her curious.

[paulmustermann]

Did you ever try talking to him? Like shouting out different notes and see how he reacts? I know it's difficult underwater but it's possible.
Or using some device to produce short clicks like the sperm whales do.
I could imagine they react to a morse-code like language, like a parrot reacts to notes.
I hear the "language center" of the sperm whale's brain is about the sam eproportion as it is in human brains, and they have it for several more million years than we do.

[TheGiantRobot]

I suppose it's a weird question, but does anyone wear ear protection around sperm whales? Can they blow your eardrums out if they click you hard? Are they careful about their clicks?

[peterhans]

Just a question cause im curious. How loud are spermwhales actually?