Distribution
A sperm whale, Physeter catodon, breaching in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico. © Tim Melling, Nature Trek.
Distribution
Worldwide
The sperm whale is found in all oceans and adjoining seas except polar ice fields (Rice, 1977). Generally, only large, older males venture to the extreme northern and southern portions of the range, pole-ward of about 40-50 degrees latitude (Jefferson et al, 2008).
Abundance
The most recent assessment of abundance using ‘best estimate’ model parameters puts the total global population of sperm whales at around 360,000 (Whitehead, 2002).