She also keeps an eye out for returning whales. Sperm whales can be identified from a distance by notches in their flukes. The last single sperm whale recorded in the area was off Malibu on Sept. 6.

Sperm whales are social beings; individuals associate in families, who then collect in clans. The males, who can reach 100,000 pounds to females’ 30,000, stay with their mothers for a decade ...

Sperm whales routinely dive 2,000 feet deep and can stay there for 45 minutes. They can even dive to depths greater than 10,000 feet for more than an hour.

A 40-foot sperm whale washed up dead on the shore of the Oregon coast, and officials believe a ship was likely the cause of the endangered animal's death.