page_title: Toothed whale
section_title: Sperm whaling
hierarchical_section_title: Toothed whale / Interaction with humans / Threats / Sperm whaling
context_page_description: The toothed whales are a parvorder of cetaceans that includes dolphins, porpoises, and all other whales possessing teeth, such as the beaked whales and sperm whales. Seventy-three species of toothed whales are described. They are one of two living groups of cetaceans, the other being the baleen whales, which have baleen instead of teeth. The two groups are thought to have diverged around 34 million years ago.
  Toothed whales range in size from the 4.5 ft and 120 lb vaquita to the 20 m and 55 t sperm whale. Several species of odontocetes exhibit sexual dimorphism, in that there are size or other morphological differences between females and males. They have streamlined bodies and two limbs that are modified into flippers. Some can travel at up to 20 knots. Odontocetes have conical teeth designed for catching fish or squid. They have well-developed hearing, that is well adapted for both air and water, so much so that some can survive even if they are blind. Some species are well adapted for diving to great depths. Almost all have a layer of fat, or blubber, under the skin to keep warm in the cold water, with the exception of river dolphins.
context_section_description: The head of the sperm whale is filled with a waxy liquid called spermaceti.  This liquid can be refined into spermaceti wax and sperm oil.  These were much sought after by 18th-, 19th-, and 20th-century whalers. These substances found a variety of commercial applications, such as candles, soap, cosmetics, machine oil, other specialized lubricants, lamp oil, pencils, crayons, leather waterproofing, rustproofing materials, and many pharmaceutical compounds.  Ambergris, a solid, waxy, flammable substance produced in the digestive system of sperm whales, was also sought as a fixative in perfumery.
  Sperm whaling in the 18th century began with small sloops carrying only a pair of whaleboats (sometimes only one). As the scope and size of the fleet increased, so did the rig of the vessels change, as brigs, schooners, and finally ships and barks were introduced. In the 19th-century stubby, square-rigged ships (and later barks) dominated the fleet, being sent to the Pacific (the first being the British whaleship Emilia, in 1788), the Indian Ocean (1780s), and as far away as the Japan grounds (1820) and the coast of Arabia (1820s), as well as Australia (1790s) and New Zealand (1790s).
  Hunting for sperm whales during this period was a notoriously dangerous affair for the crews of the 19th-century whaleboats. Although a properly harpooned sperm whale generally exhibited a fairly consistent pattern of attempting to flee underwater to the point of exhaustion (at which point it would surface and offer no further resistance), it was not uncommon for bull whales to become enraged and turn to attack pursuing whaleboats on the surface, particularly if it had already been wounded by repeated harpooning attempts. A commonly reported tactic was for the whale to invert itself and violently thrash the surface of the water with its fluke, flipping and crushing nearby boats.
  The estimated historic worldwide sperm whale population numbered 1,100,000 before commercial sperm whaling began in the early 18th century.  By 1880, it had declined an estimated 29%.  From that date until 1946, the population appears to have recovered somewhat as whaling pressure lessened, but after the Second World War, with the industry's focus again on sperm whales, the population declined even further to only 33%.  In the 19th century, between 184,000 and 236,000 sperm whales were estimated to have been killed by the various whaling nations,  while in the modern era, at least 770,000 were taken, the majority between 1946 and 1980. Remaining sperm whale populations are large enough so that the species' conservation status is vulnerable, rather than endangered.  However, the recovery from the whaling years is a slow process, particularly in the South Pacific, where the toll on males of breeding age was severe.
caption: The nose of the whale is filled with a waxy substance that was widely used in candles, oil lamps, and lubricants