How do you make underwater art? Apparently, all you need is a bit of sunlight, a striking blue backdrop … and one freaked-out whale. Yes, Keri Wilk's photo series of a sperm whale's defensive poop-cloud has certainly made its rounds … but after catching up with him, we've got our hands on the rest of the beautiful photographs (poop can be beautiful ... who knew?), some of which could almost pass as paintings.
The images were shot as part of Wilk's expedition to photograph the resident sperm whales of Dominica, a small island that helps separate the Caribbean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean. Wilk has years of experience diving with Dominica's marine life, but even so, he was caught off guard by what happened when he approached the large whale. He recalls:
"The guilty whale stayed in one spot, kept defecating, and spinning like a bus-sized blender, growing the cloud to well over 100 feet in diameter. The 30-foot whale was completely hidden inside the gigantic poop ball. When we were sufficiently confused/blinded by poop, it burst out of the poop ball faster than I’ve ever seen a whale move.
This is essentially the equivalent of an octopus squirting ink, and as strange as it sounds, this was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen underwater. And no, we didn’t do anything to stress the animal, and all government permit rules were followed precisely with an extremely experienced guide and boat captain … It wasn’t just a poop. It was a defence mechanism."
With volcanoes, waterfalls, rainforests, hundreds of rivers, and endemic flora and fauna, it's no surprise that Dominica has earned the nickname 'Nature Island'. "And that isn't even taking the marine life into account!" Wilk explains. "The ocean floor along Dominica's west coast drops steeply to several thousand feet very close to shore, providing a calm and sheltered area for a large group of resident sperm whales to feed, mate and socialise."
This sperm whale haven has helped the tiny island grow a booming ecotourism industry. And admirably, the Dominican government restricts in-water encounters to a few carefully controlled researchers, reputable underwater expedition leaders, documentary film crews and, for the past three years, Wilk. "Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) may have been portrayed as vicious human killers in Moby Dick, but in reality they're more like shy puppies the size of buses. They're also the largest and loudest active hunters on earth," he says.
Wilk prefers to freedive with these animals so as not to disturb them, so what prompted the spooked whale to unleash its load will remain a mystery – but Wilk assures us the experience was worth it. "I was soaked in [faeces] from head to toe. But, after leaving the cloud, it quickly washed away and didn’t leave a smell."
For top-side footage of Wilk's whale encounters, check out the expedition video:
Sharks
Human Impact
Whales and Dolphins
