Current Human Impacts

While global fisheries have banned commercial whaling, humans still provide some threat to 
sperm whales. Many direct and indirect anthropogenic threats to sperm whales include climate 
change, ocean noise, marine debris, entanglement, oil spills, and vessel accidents.

CLIMATE CHANGE

As the oceans warm, this can push sperm whales out of their realized niche. It affects them because warmer waters can decrease food availability and negatively change their habitats. Sperm whales also decide on migration areas and reproductive areas based on water temperature and currents. As the water increases in temperature, the currents and water circulation change so this affects their choice of breeding grounds. However, these whales can inhabit most areas of the world so they should be resilient to this disturbance.

OCEAN NOISE

Examples of ocean noise include sonar, commercial shipping, explosions, deterrent devices, and 
industrial activities. Sperm whales use sound communicate and these noise pollution examples
can interfere with whale communication. This means that they cannot hear each other or decipher
what other whales communicate. Because of the decreased communication, this interferes with 
feeding, migrating, and socializing. It also can cause the whales to lose their natural preferred 
habitat, increase their stress levels, and hearing damage.

MARINE DEBRIS

Some debris can fall off of sunken vessels and the sperm whales can ingest these pieces of 
debris thinking it is prey. Depending on the size of the debris, it can seriously injure or kill the 
whale.

ENTANGLEMENT

Sperm whales can entangle themselves in fishing equipment such as trap lines, gillnets, and pots. They are an extreme but plausible example of bycatch. Because the whales continue to swim with the nets after entanglement, some results include fatigue, difficulty feeding, or severe injury. 
These three results can lead to death and reproductive troubles, thus helping to decrease the 
population of sperm whales.

VESSEL ACCIDENTS

Sperm whales can run into large marine vessels. While humans do not intend to hit the whales, some accidents do occur and result in injured or even dead sperm whales. Their behavior of drifting between the surface and deeper depths leaves them vulnerable to accidents. Also, with an 
increased amount of globalization through shipping, this also increases the chances of an 
accident.

OIL SPILLS

Oil spills from barges in the open ocean and other contaminants released from marine vessels can 
pollute the ocean water. The pollutants can biomagnify up the food chain and eventually reach the
sperm whales. Most of the long-term effects are unknown but are likely to reduce life expectancy.

This map is the study area as sperm whales can inhabit such a large portion of the Earth.