 When echolocating , the sperm whale emits a directionally focused beam of broadband clicks . Clicks are generated by forcing air through a pair of phonic lips ( also known as " monkey lips " or " museau de singe " ) at the front end of the nose , just below the blowhole . The sound then travels backwards along the length of the nose through the spermaceti organ . Most of the sound energy is then reflected off the frontal sac at the cranium and into the melon , whose lens @-@ like structure focuses it . Some of the sound will reflect back into the spermaceti organ and back towards the front of the whale 's nose , where it will be reflected through the spermaceti organ a third time . This back and forth reflection which happens on the scale of a few milliseconds creates a multi @-@ pulse click structure . This multi @-@ pulse click structure allows researchers to measure the whale 's spermaceti organ using only the sound of its clicks . Because the interval between pulses of a sperm whale 's click is related to the length of the sound producing organ , an individual whale 's click is unique to that individual . However , if the whale matures and the size of the spermaceti organ increases , the tone of the whale 's click will also change . The lower jaw is the primary reception path for the echoes . A continuous fat @-@ filled canal transmits received sounds to the inner ear . 
