Oddities about the spermwhale

Before reading this article just to let you know: the spermwhale offers several oddities. Today we have a closer look at the Spermaceti Organ.

Spermaceti Organ

The spermwhale enormous head takes about one third of its body height. Inclosed in the head, you find one of the heaviest brain of the animal kingdom. Equally located in the skull is the spermaceti organ. This could also deserve the name “oil reservoir”. It is a kind of skull cavity, holding an average amount of 3000 liters of spermaceti oil (weight: 2650 kg). A space, big enough to park a small car inside.

In former times, it must have been quite surprisingly, when the first whalers cut the spermwhales heads open and found a milky whitish, waxy substance. At first they (all men) thought it would be a huge portion of sperma. Thats why they called it spermaceti. The english name spermwhale derives from this time.

Function

What exactly is the purpose, the biological function of spermaceti? Which sense does it makes for the largest whale of the toothed whales? Well, for the moment this answer remains still a secret. Earlier assumptions, that it might function a help for diving deep are rebutted. So is it maybe a kind of acoustic lense, which focus the clicks of echolocation and target them in the deep? Besides their common clicks, spermwhales also produces very loud, thumping noises. Maybe helping to locate delicacies in the dark deepness?

Application of Spermaceti

In former times when mineral oil was not yet discovered, spermaceti oil was a highly requested raw material. It served as fuel for oil lamps (f.e. light houses, street lighting) and even as medicine for pulmonary diseases. Beside this also as wax for especially high quality candles, also as grease for motors and automatic gearboxes. Moreover, spermaceti oil was a favored lubricant for light and sensitive machines like watches, sewing machines and similar. Further more it was a component in the automobile industry for hydraulic systems. Spermaceti was highly estimated also in the aerospace industry.

The suitability of spermaceti for the fabrication of high quality oil was one of the main reasons for the intensive hunt during the period of industrial whale hunting. The worldwide population of Spermwhales collapsed and was near extinction.

Only very slowly and over a long period of time, the spermwhale population is since then recovering step by step.

Your Guide Astrid Haas