Pilot Whales in Tenerife

The short-finned pilot whales are from the same family as the Dolphins and the Orcas.  They are all warm blooded mammals, and have teeth to grip their prey.

Here in Tenerife we are lucky to have them resident all year round.  There are only FOUR places in the world in which they are resident; here, Hawaii, California and Japan.  In Hawaii and in Tenerife, the whales are completely protected; you are not able to swim with them, tag them, feed them, and trawl fishing in their zone is completely prohibited.  Unfortunately in Japan they are still hunted.

 In Tenerife they reside in quite a small area; a triangle formed by the furthest southern point of the island, Punta Rasca, the cliffs of Los Gigantes, and the island of La Gomera.

There are three main reasons for this;

One is the depth of the water; the depth is on average around 1200m, although the deepest point has been measured at 3550m. The two islands (Tenerife and La Gomera) have been formed from volcanic eruptions from the sea bed in the middle of the Atlantic, forming the extreme depths in a very short distance.

The second reason is the all year round temperature of the water.  The short-finned pilot whales enjoy warm water, and here, the ocean is between 18 and 24 degrees Celsius all year. They do have close relatives, the long-finned pilot whales that prefer cooler waters.

The third reason is the abundance of food that lives in these waters, also all year round.  The whales feed predominantly from giant squid.  The squid can grow up to around 15m long, and can only be found in the depths of the ocean between 400m and 800m deep.  For this reason we cannot see them from the boat.

The pilot whale family can be similar to that of a human family. . .

The females are the boss of the family; they look after the young, give birth, and basically care for the family.  The males are the workers in the family, their work is hunting.  There are normally around 2 or 3 dominant males to a group (pod), and a pod can be anywhere between 10 and 50 individual whales.  The rest of the pod will be made up of females and calves and youngsters.

The males will hunt together; they detect their prey by sonar, and then dive together, very quickly into the depths of the water to grab a giant squid between them and return it to the surface.  In doing this the squid is taken out of its pressurized environment, and its internal organs expand until they explode as they reach the surface.  This is how the squid dies, from the abnormal pressure.  Once the squid is on the surface, the calves will eat first.  They start on solid food from around 1 year old, before this they only suckle milk from their mother.  Then the females feed, and then finally if there is enough left, the males will feed.  If not, they have to go back down to the depths of the ocean to get another squid.

The high speed dive has given the Pilot whales their nick name of the ‘Cheetahs of the deep’; they have been known to travel at speeds of up to 9m per second.  The males usually grow to 6.5m in length and weigh 3000kg, the females to around 4.5m and weigh 1500kg.  The females will be born into a pod, and will normally never leave a pod, whereas males will mature and go off and make their own family.

Females are able to give birth once every 3 years; they have a gestation period of 15 months. Once the calf is born it will stay by its mother for at least 7 years, swimming in unison.

The reason for this is that the mother is protecting her calf; their predators also live in these waters in the form of Blue Sharks and Hammerhead Sharks, and in the case of Japan, humans.

As in a human family, the females will mature quicker than the males, the females tend to mature around 7 years, and the males around 10 years.

The dominant males of a pod will mate with their females and protect their family, but there has been evidence that suggests that they also mate with female of other groups.

If you would like the opportunity to see these incredible creatures in their natural environment, please visit Eden Catamaran for more information on excursions to their habitat and on our relaxing catamaran.