Cristina Hodgson
THE only sperm whale breeding ground in the Spanish Mediterranean has been discovered north of Menorca.
For the last two years a higher than normal presence of Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) has been observed in a point located north of Menorca which Scientists have recently managed to confirm as a breeding ground for this species.
The announcement was made this Saturday, October 29, during the XIII Congress of the Spanish Cetacean Society, held in Ibiza and which has brought together dozens of experts in the field.
During the congress, the scientific director of Tursiops—an NGO founded in 1998 with the aim of studying cetaceans and their dissemination in the Mediterranean Sea, especially in the Balearic Islands—Txema Brotons, explained that after the measurements and observations made during the last two years, it was possible to confirm the existence of this ‘nursery’ of sperm whales.
Since 2020 there have been sightings of numerous juvenile specimens in this area north of Menorca.
Sperm whales have a long maturation process, and females and juveniles tend to group together in small family units.
In the case of these recent observations in the Balearic islands, 12 sperm whale calves were first spotted in mid-June 2020, within a group of 44 specimens in total, as shown in the following footage:
These and other observations have confirmed the breeding ground, and is considered an ‘important’ discovery, given the small number of sperm whales in the Mediterranean.
In fact, according to Brotons, in the last three generations, this species has lost 70% of its numbers.
The sperm whale is considered a highly endangered species, of which in the entire Mediterranean there are only about 2,000 of these marine mammals.
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