Sight, Sound and Survival in the Deep

For centuries, sailors have told legends about whales battling giant monsters beneath the waves. Breaching and beached sperm whales bore the scars of battles in the deep dark, sparking myths of lurking behemoths that lingered long past the age of dinosaurs. Predating modern marine science, Aristotle described a giant squid, and the Norse told the legend of the Kraken. But sailors could only describe what they could see - strange beaks, scars on whales and giant tentacles rising out of the water.

Today, we know that there are real animals behind these myths: Meet the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) and giant squid (Archetuethis dux). The real story is much more interesting: Both animals are locked in an evolutionary arms race, constantly adapting to better capture prey and evade other predators. Our subjects are historically misunderstood animals that are nearly opposites of each other, showcasing a spectrum of survival tools millions of years in the making.

The Science of Survival

Cetologists use advanced technology to understand not just who these animals are, but how they use communication, perception, and specialized tools to survive. One species is born with skills to evade capture, and one that passes those lessons down through generations. It turns out that these legendary “sea monsters” of old are both strong survivors in a changing world. Let’s look at the evolutionary arms race between these seemingly-opposite masters of the deep:

Squid have cantaloupe-sized eyes to see further in the darkness than their competitors. Scanning the darkness with the largest eyes in the animal kingdom, giant squids (Architeuthis dux) focus on bioluminescent trails.

They’re able to see the “soup” of bioluminescent plankton that is disturbed and illuminated by a pod of diving sperm whales, like the spinning, rolling wake behind a speedboat or a flurry of snowflakes.

A large disturbance suggests a large animal approaching, so the squid must decide to freeze in place or flee with jet propulsion, leaving a cloud of ink in their wake.

Inking: As lone hunters, the giant squids use visual communication for diversion and escape from anything larger than themselves. One of their favorite tactics is expelling ink as a concealing cloud while they dart into the darkness.

Echolocation: Sperm whales use louder and more precise echolocation than in other cetaceans during group hunting and coordinated tracking of challenging prey, like giant squids.

Acoustic Stealth: Giant squid can “freeze” vertically in place when they sense a predator hunting with echolocation in the dark.

By holding a narrow, upright profile in the midwater, the squid makes its outline harder for a scanning sperm whale to resolve.

This is a highly sophisticated precocial behavior (an instinct that animals practice that aren’t taught by their parents).

Social bonds and codas: Every sperm whale pod builds identity through its own pattern of calls, or codas, which help family members recognize and stay bonded to one another.

Learning from the pod: Young whales “babble” with relatives until they learn to speak their ancestors’ language with the timing and rhythm their family expects.

Frequent hunting, guided by elders: As warm-blooded mammals, sperm whales need far more calories than similarly sized predators, so they hunt often and depend on experienced pod elders for feedback during dives.

The Cost of a Changing Ocean

1

Giant squids and sperm whales have survived using specialized tools: sperm whales communicate and hunt with sound, and giant squid hide and navigate with camouflage, excellent vision, speed, inking, and other adaptations to survive full-time in the deep sea. Their hidden world becomes more relatable to us, revealing surprising parallels between their lives and ours: communication and problem-solving as a means for survival.

2

Both altricial animals, like sperm whales (P. macrocephalus), and precocial animals, like giant squids (A. dux), need a stable environment for maintaining stable populations. In the case of sperm whales, a stable population, safe hunting grounds, plentiful food, and space away from human activities helps the passage of cultural knowledge from pod leaders: The whale matriarchs.

3

Areas that are disturbed by sound pollution, heavy sea ship traffic and exploitation of deep-sea fisheries all negatively impact the population sizes and health of predators, such as giant squids and sperm whales. How can we help recover their populations despite continuous survival threats? Gaining insights on the secret lives of these animals provides an opportunity to care about these animals, protect the ecosystems they depend on, and make choices that help ensure their deep-ocean world does not disappear back into silence.

Modern Conflicts

Sperm Whales

Conflicts between human technology and communication have directly and indirectly killed scores of sperm whales throughout the past several centuries, including fishing gear entanglement, direct hunting, sound pollution, ship strikes, and ingestion of plastic waste.

Giant Squids

Giant squid populations appear to remain consistent at the moment, but they are sensitive to acoustic damage that can permanently cause tissue destruction. They also demonstrate sensitivity to low-oxygen environments partially caused by warming ocean temperatures.

How You Can Make a Difference

  • Vote for policy that restricts development or transportation across open oceans that generates noise pollution for cetaceans and for giant squids.
  • Volunteer for Citizen Science projects, even if you don’t live near the ocean.
    1. NASA Citizen Science Projects
    2. USA dot GOV Citizen Science Directory
    3. NOAA Citizen Science Projects

Additional Resources

Acknowledgements

A heartfelt thank-you to Research Affiliates Cayla Powell McClintick and Leah Ndirangu, PhD., and UX Designer Jenny Shufutinskaya.

Photo & Media Credits

Hero image. Whale&Squid~11-29-08.JPG, WiKiRaW31, Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Adapted for this site with color and shading edits.

Beat 2, panel 1. Orca blubber sampling.jpg, Robert Pitman, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain as a U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration work. Source listed on Commons as Nature.

Beat 2, panel 2. US Navy 080720-N-9316F-002 Ari Friedlaender, a Duke University Marine Laboratory researcher, attaches a D-TAG to a pilot whale off the coast of Kona, Hawaii.jpg, U.S. Navy photo by Ari S. Friedlaender, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain as a work of the U.S. federal government.

Beat 2, panel 3. US Navy 080724-N-9316F-009 An adult male pilot whale with an attached D-TAG swims off the coast of Kona, Hawaii.jpg, U.S. Navy photo by Ari S. Friedlaender, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain as a work of the U.S. federal government.

Audio. Sperm Whale Creak 2.ogg, NOAA, from Wikimedia Commons, dated April 1, 2013. Public domain as a U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration work.

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