How amazing are these photos of sleeping sperm whales that were captured by photographer Franco Banfi last week?

Only ten years ago, no one really knew how sperm whales slept, or if they did so for any significant amount of time at any point. While many had theories, real evidence of sperm whales sleeping habits had never been witnessed or captured on film.

In 2008, the first footage was a captured of a group of whales sleeping. It was captured by a group of biologists from the UK and Japan, when they drifted into a group of completely still sperm whales.

Since that discovery however, sleeping sperm whales have remained one of the rarest sighting in the ocean, making Banfi’s shots all the more incredible.