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Part of the Pod
The Sperm Whales Communities of Caribbean Sea
By Sabrina Belloni | Photos by Franco Banfi
My first experience with the Sperm whales of Caribbean Sea dates back ten years ago. A dense sequence of clicks reverberating in my chest left me astonished, without knowing what to do. I was in the warm clear blue water, 50 metres visibility and did not see anything … I only felt my body vibrate and a large shadow beyond my field of vision. I swam back to the boat, confused. That first encounter was a bolt from the blue for me, an epiphany.
From then, I went back to the Caribbean Sea almost every year: a strong bond was established.

Like the majority of people, I knew little of these awesome gentle giants and I could not imagine that the relationship would be strengthened from year to year – stronger and deeper after each encounter, during each interaction.
At one point, my partner Franco and I found ourselves inside a huge brown cloud of … liquid poop, darkening and besmirching the otherwise crystal clear water, with powerful tails banging right and left, bodies rolling on the surface and onto each others, trying to push Franco and myself (the smallest and helpless members of the whales’ family) in the middle of the group to protect us from predators (a group of pilot whales swimming far away, off-shore).

I discovered I have space in my soul, waiting to be filled with emotions, respect and knowledge.
Snorkelling in the open ocean with one sperm whale is something extraordinary in itself, especially when she lowers her speed and allows us to be side by side, at eyes level, looking directly into our eyes and in our soul. Being accepted and snorkelling, freediving, floating with a group of sperm-whales is beyond every imagination. It’s massive.

The journey starts early in the morning. Our team of max 6 people (including the Officer guide) gets on board and we leave the dock. Sometimes we see the blow of sperm-whales after a short navigation, sometimes it takes more.
After a while, we try to catch their routes with a hydrophone. In January / February the weather and sea conditions are usually calm, but it rains a lot closer to the island – short thunderstorms that do not affect our mission but end up with wonderful double arc rainbows, and make the island greener and more luxuriant than the others in the Lesser Antilles’ group.

When whales accept the boat and show interest by lowering their speed in swimming or simply ignoring our presence, we enter the water in rotation of two teams: at that moment, we are the only three people allowed in the water and whales are relaxed. Usually, they go ahead doing their things. Many times they are curious and come to us, starting to inspect our bodies with their powerful click (sonar). If we pass their examination, they will accept us in the pod and we can share some unforgettable moments; otherwise they will plunge in the deep or simply swim a hundred metres from us. There is no way to reach them by kicking our fins, it does not matter how long or flexible they are, how fit and trained we are : when sperm whales decide that the game is over, the encounters finish and the boat comes to pick up us.


Franco is a world known professional underwater photographer who together with Sabrina, collaborate as a photojournalist team. They both started as recreational scuba divers, later specialising in technical diving and more recently freediving too.
Sabrina & Franco