Great Sperm Whale (Physeter Macrocephalus) Best time for spotting this whale in Gran Canaria

The highlight of your boat trip might be a sighting of the great sperm whale which appears occasionally off Gran Canaria.

You will easily recognize one by its massive head and prominent rounded forehead.
They hold the Guinness Book of Records for having the largest brain of any creature known to have lived on Earth.
Each whale head is filled with large quantities of an oily fluid called spermaceti because whalers once believed that this substance was sperm.

Scientists now hold the theory that the fluid helps the whale dive deep and rise again by changing its buoyancy.

Sperm whales are recorded diving as deep as 3,280 feet (1,000 meters) in search of food and holding their breath for up to ninety minutes on such dives.

Such leviathans need massive amounts of food – an individual will eat about one ton (907 kilograms) of fish and squid per day.

Driven by their tale flukes - approximately sixteen feet (five meters) from tip to tip - they can cruise at around twenty-three miles (thirty-seven kilometers) per hour.