On July 10th, 2008, a 18 metres long life size sculpture of a sperm whale made from wood, aluminium and polyester lies on the beach of Scheveningenis. This gigantic state of the art was made by artist Zephyr (alias of Dirk Claesen) and is meant to promote the collection of the museum Muzee Scheveningen.

From a wikipedia article, the sperm whale (Physeter Catodon) is the largest of all toothed whales, making them the Earth’s largest living carnivore and largest living toothed animal. The whale was named after the milky-white waxy substance, spermaceti, found in its head and originally mistaken for sperm.

It has a cosmopolitan distribution across the world’s oceans. The species feeds on squid and fish, diving as deep as 2,200 metres (7,200 ft) in order to obtain its prey, making it the deepest diving mammal in the world. Pods of females and young live separately from older males. Sperm whales live for 50 years and possibly more.

The sperm whale’s enormous head and distinctive shape, as well as its central role in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, have led many to describe it as the archetypal whale. Partly because of Melville, the sperm whale is commonly associated with the Leviathan of the Bible.

The fearsome reputation perpetuated by Melville was based on bull whales’ ability to fiercely defend themselves from attacks by early whalers, sometimes resulting in the destruction of the whaling ships.

Historically the sperm whale has also been known as the common cachalot. The word cachalot is originally Portuguese (cachalote), probably coming from cachola, a colloquial term for head. Sperm whales were used to commercially hunted until recently, declined as a consequence of over-harvesting, and are currently listed as vulnerable by the IUCN.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, July 12th, 2008 at 4:37 am and is filed under Animal World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.