Earth Our Only Home > Ocean Paintings

sperm whales are highly social animals, the elephant of the sea
Neptune's Elephant_installation view
oil on canvas
4 panels_96x72 inches overall, ceiling10 feet 9 inches high
2015

Sperm whales are highly social mammals, the elephant of the sea; they come to each others' aid, a characteristic that, sadly, humans took advantage of when hunting them. Specialized for deep feeding on squid, to look upwards they sometimes flip over on their backs to see above. In death, a whale becomes a"whale fall", its dead body nurturing an entire ecosystem of sea creatures. It is what the scientist Bernd Heinrich calls nature's form of immortality..