At the beginning of the 21st Century, the Canadian and Scottish researchers, Dr Shane Gero, Dr Luke Rendell, and Dr Hal Whitehead established the Dominica Sperm Whale Project, an innovative and integrative long-term research programme that has followed sperm whale families – or ‘pods’ – for many years in the Caribbean Sea.

Nearly 20 years since its launch, the project is still running today with its focus remaining on the social behaviour and vocal communication between resident sperm whales. The project now also incorporates biological sampling for genetic, diet, and blubber analysis as well as acoustic monitoring and photographic assessment of cetacean populations for Dominica’s local government.

Dominica is an ideal spot for sperm whale research not just because of its calm waters, proximity to the shoreline, and notable occurrence of high birth rates among the species, but most importantly because of the lengthy periods that sperm whale families spend in residence there. Unlike the Galapagos, for instance, where these whales would move on after only two weeks, in Dominica, sperm whales stay for prolonged periods. And they always return.

It’s this reliability that has allowed Dr Gero, Dr Rendell, and Dr Whitehead to carry out important work and unveil some rather unexpected truths about Dominica’s oldest residents.

“We are at a place many years later where we have whales that we studied as babies now having babies of their own,” said Dr Gero in a recent in-house interview with Carleton University where he is a Scientist in Residence. “And that alone makes for some very powerful science.”

Some of the most revelatory discoveries made over those almost two decades all revolve around their societal structures. Similar to elephants, sperm whales move in clans with vocal dialects that are unique to each. It has been found that these distinctive behaviours – as well as clan-membership itself – are all learned through social engagement, passed along most commonly through matrilines (a line of descent traced through the female, from a female ancestor to a descendent of either gender).

“We see sperm whales as being fundamentally different, but in truth, if we pay attention – what’s important to them sounds surprisingly familiar: love your family, be a good neighbour, survival, and resiliency,” says Dr Gero.

This is perhaps the largest finding of the last 20 years of research. On the surface – spanning the size of two buses and weighing up to ten – sperm whales are physically very different from humans, so why is it that we share a similar set of core values?