The Dominica Sperm Whale Project is an innovative and integrative study of the world's largest toothed whale. Through thousands of hours of observation of sperm whale families, the population of whales in the Caribbean has given us the unique opportunity to come to know them as individuals within families. Our program is the first to have followed sperm whale families of whales across years.  We have followed many calves from birth through weaning and we now know that some families have been using the region for decades. No sperm whale population has been this well characterized and the detailed behavioural histories of these individuals are rare among mammals, particularly in the ocean.