This is an updated version of a story first published on May 14, 2023. The original video can be viewed here.

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In 2022, the United Nations made a global commitment to protect at least 30% of the world's land and sea by 2030 in order to reverse the damage caused by human activities and safeguard vulnerable species.

Among the species at risk is the sperm whale, one of the largest and least understood creatures in the ocean. Contrary to the portrayal in "Moby Dick," sperm whales are not predators. They have brains that are six times larger than ours and spend the majority of their lives in the deep, dark depths of the ocean. To give you an idea of their size, they can be compared to a school bus.

Last spring, National Geographic Explorer Enric Sala embarked on a journey to the Caribbean island of Dominica, where he proposed the establishment of protections for the hundreds of sperm whales residing there.

However, locating these elusive creatures proved to be a challenge.

Curt Benoit: You guys ready? Go, go, go. Go, guys, go! Look in the water coming straight to you.

Unlike a fire drill, most of Enric Sala's dives do not begin with such urgency, despite his extensive experience as an underwater explorer. 

Whales of a Different Kind

We had an incredible encounter with a group of whales during our expedition, but they turned out to be pygmy killer whales instead of the sperm whales we had hoped to see. These pygmy killer whales are known to pose a threat to sperm whales, and their presence here has caused the sperm whales to stay away.

The pygmy killer whales can reach a size of up to eight-and-a-half feet.

Our team was fortunate to witness these whales up close, as it is a rare occurrence.

Enric Sala, a marine biologist, explained that getting in the water with these elusive creatures is almost impossible. They are incredibly smart and hunt in groups like wolves. They have no qualms about interacting with humans and are solely focused on hunting their prey.

We were exploring the waters off the coast of Dominica, a country in the eastern Caribbean known as the Nature Island. The area is characterized by rainforest-covered volcanic peaks that descend thousands of feet to the seafloor below. It is the perfect habitat for hundreds of sperm whales, which are renowned for their deep diving abilities.

Most of the individuals here are females -- families composed of grandmothers, mothers, and daughters who remain together for their entire lives…nurturing and raising their offspring.

During Enric Sala's visit, his team from National Geographic captured footage of this phenomenon.

It is a group of sleeping female sperm whales – towering creatures measuring up to 40 feet in length, suspended near the surface…their slumber lasting only about 15 minutes…until the whales are prepared to dive again on an hour-long journey in search of squid thousands of feet below.

Even for researchers, why they sleep in this manner remains one of the great mysteries.

Cecilia Vega: What is it like to be in the water with them?

Enric Sala: Magical.

Enric Sala: We have, in our minds, the legend of Moby Dick: these aggressive and unpleasant creatures. However, once you enter the water, they are so calm and gentle. They have never attacked humans, and they are incredibly curious, especially the young ones. So, it is one of the most extraordinary wildlife encounters one can experience on this planet.

Cecilia Vega: Your official title is "Explorer-in-Residence." Not bad.

Enric Sala: It's an oxymoron. Explorers are not meant to be "in residence."

Cecilia Vega: That's true. Explorers are not supposed to stay in one place.

Cecilia Vega: What does it mean to be an "explorer" in the year 2023?

Enric Sala: Explorer and Ocean Conservationist

Enric Sala is not your typical explorer. Unlike those from the 19th century, he doesn't travel to far-off lands in search of fame and fortune. Instead, Sala dedicates his life to working with scientists, policymakers, filmmakers, storytellers, local communities, governments, and Indigenous peoples to assess the health of ocean places and protect them.

Originally from a coastal town near Barcelona, Spain, Sala's passion for the ocean began at a young age. His first dive was in a marine reserve, an experience that would shape his future endeavors.

"It drove everything that I have done afterwards," Sala explains. "If we give the ocean space, it can heal itself."

After his early experiences in Spain, Sala moved to California, where he became a professor of marine ecology at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. However, he eventually realized that academia alone was not enough to make a meaningful impact.

"My job was to study the impacts of humans in the ocean, the impacts of fishing and global warming," Sala says. "But I felt like I was just writing the obituary of the ocean. I wanted to find a cure, not just diagnose the problem."

Sala's quest for a solution led him to collaborate with a diverse group of experts and stakeholders, working together to protect and restore the ocean's health. Through their collective efforts, they aim to create a sustainable future for both the ocean and humanity.

There is one solution that is proven, it's a success story everywhere in the world. Which is-- marine reserves, or marine protected areas: areas where damaging activities are banned, and marine life can come back.

He founded the Pristine Seas Project in 2008. It combines sea exploration, scientific research and public policy…and has worked with 17 countries to turn these large swaths of the ocean into marine protected areas.

In Dominica, scientists estimate the sperm whale population declines by 3% each year. 

A preserve would protect them from their greatest threats: not those pygmy killer whales we saw or whaling, which has been banned for decades…but plastic trash, ocean noise pollution and ship strikes.

If they continue with the status quo here, what happens?

If nothing is done, the population will probably continue declining, so reducing those threats hopefully will allow the sperm whale population to rebound. And the more whales there are, the more benefits Dominica and the local communities will obtain.

Hurricane Maria devastated those communities in 2017. 

Today the island is continuing to rebuild and prepare for the future…Francine Baron heads the agency in charge of that effort.

What was it about Hurricane Maria that made the leaders of this country say, "We have to do something, we really have to act"?

• Males here live with their families until their teen years. Then they roam mostly alone, swimming thousands of miles away. Caribbean male sperm whales have been found as far away as Norway, returning here only to mate.
• Cecilia Vega: Our cameraman got lucky enough, or unlucky enough, to have the whale poop on him.
• Enric Sala: So the whales go down, they hunt squid, they come back to the surface, they breathe, they rest, and they poop. And that poop is full of nutrients which fertilizes the shallow waters.
• Cecilia Vega: So a good thing, I guess.

Enric Sala: It's a good thing.

Curt Benoit: Come on people, we're looking for spouts. 

But our luck…didn't last.

Curt Benoit: Ok guys, nothing is here. 

We spent the next day searching for sperm whales…and the next.. 

Cecilia Vega: Nothing at all? 

Curt Benoit: Nothing at all.

And the next…not a single click.

Curt Benoit: OK guys, it's pretty quiet.

And then -- in the last hour, of the last day of our trip…

Curt Benoit: There are lots of animals in the area guys --

Curt Benoit:….oh, they're coming back. But I'm getting sounds of 360 so that means the whales, we are above them…we are right there. 

First mate: There she blows! There she blows! …Go, go, go!! And stay there, it's coming to you…

Curt Benoit: It's coming to you! It's coming to you!

We dived into the water and a young female whale swam directly towards us... she came within a few feet... at first, her size was terrifying.

She made a sound like a creaking door hinge -- it's one of the ways whales communicate and socialize.

With eyes on the side of her head, she stared right at us...

She had squid in her mouth -- leftovers from lunch thousands of feet below...

She stayed and rolled around -- and her jaw was wide open. She was using echolocation... bouncing those clicks off of us trying to figure out what we were.

Cecilia Vega: You could hear the clicking. You could hear her. Once you were really close to her, you could "t-t", you could hear that so well--

Enric Sala: Very loudly, I could feel it in my bones.

Cecilia Vega: Uh-huh. You grabbed my hand. You could tell I was nervous.

Enric Sala: I was excited too.

Cecilia Vega: You were?

Enric Sala: They are huge. You have to respect them.

Cecilia Vega: You have to respect them. There is a sense of awe that comes with being in there. She was lookin' right at us.

And she left us a souvenir. 

Dennis Dillion: A piece of squid. 

Shane Gero: Sperm whales live in…

Shane Gero is another National Geographic explorer...he started the Dominica Sperm Whale Project and over the past 18 years, he's identified more than 35 families.

Cecilia Vega: Did you recognize the whale that we saw? 

Shane Gero: The animal you met belongs to the EC2 clan, the other clan of whales that we've known exists in the Caribbean, but we haven't seen all that much. And those groups identify themselves by making specific patterns of clicks, called codas.

Shane Gero: It's a part of who they are, where their grandmother grew up. And so it really ties the animals and the place together.

Cecilia Vega: What does the coda of the EC2 sound like?

Shane Gero: They make the 5R3 coda. And it sounds like this (clapping). Five slow clicks.

Shane Gero: And she came up to you and made this 5R3 coda, saying, "I am from the EC2 clan. Are you?"

Cecilia Vega: She was rolling around, and she kept coming back. But is that me, assigning human characteristics to a whale? Or is she actually a playful animal?