CHAPTER 4
Adult Migrations
20,000 Leagues over the Sea
Sometimes our knowledge of the natural world relies on deduction
rather than direct observation. When a Sperm Whale dies and is autop-
sied, its stomach is full of the hard indigestible beaks of squid. Now
imagine watching a Sperm Whale off the Kaikoura coast of New Zealand.
Its flanks are pocked by circular marks, presumably the battle scars left
by past encounters with the suckers on the tentacles of Giant Squid. So
when the whale flicks its tail skywards, before sliding vertically into the
abyss, the 3 km depths of the Kaikoura Canyon, it is impossible to resist