The sperm whales of the world consume more squid each year by mass than the mass of the human population of the planet. It’s a lot of squid. They’re almost constantly hunting squid. What you may not have known is that there is some evidence giant squid (some as long as adult sperm whales) also hunt sperm whales. While this is dubious and unproven, if true it would be one of exceedingly few examples in the world of two animals hunting one another. And I love the metaphorical potential of it, so here we go. The two creatures, poetically known as “Leviathan” and “Kraken,” have been the subjects of loads of paintings, poems, and sailors’ stories. Our popular imagination has an image of these two monsters of the sea battling at the surface. Unfortunately for the squid, this is probably near the end of the fight. The giant squid is at home at depth. Near the surface, dissolved gasses in its blood will come out of solution and cause embolism, which will kill the animal. The sperm whale, a mammal, has an incredible capacity for breath holding and diving, but eventually it has to breathe air at the surface. The winner of this epic struggle is not the one who rips and tears, but the one who holds the other too long outside their comfort zone. Neither can survive in the other’s home.