While observing sperm whales off the Sri Lankan coast, Philip Hoare came face to face with eight hunting orcas who had no fear of the 100-strong sperm whale pod

Thanks to Philip Hoare for this photo-documentary of his recent dive in our old neighborhood just south of the southern tip of India:

I spent last week on a six-metre fishing boat in the Indian Ocean off Kalpitiya, on the west coast of Sri Lanka with the photographer Andrew Sutton and the marine biologist Ranil Nanayakkara. Andrew and I were diving in a marine conservation area under special licence from the Sri Lankan wildlife department. Here, I met a pair of young, sexually mature male sperm whales – cetacean teenagers.

Photograph: Andrew Sutton

Photograph: Andrew Sutton

Sperm whales are supreme divers, jackknifing their muscular bodies down to spend up to two hours at depths of a mile or more, using their echo-locating clicks to find their favourite food – squid.

Photograph: Andrew Sutton

A male peers at us, curiously. The vast head of a sperm whale contains spermaceti, once believed to be the animal’s semen. In fact, this oil has bio-acoustical amplification properties, enabling the whale to produce the loudest sounds of any animal. They also emit morse-like “codas”, and can communicate over tens of miles…

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