Who would win this epic ocean fight?
Oceans are mysterious places, and the Giant Squid and the Sperm Whale are just as mysterious.
Both animals are not studied enough due to their hard to reach habitat.
Giant Squids live up to their name and are the most enormous Squids ever to be recorded by biologists. The largest Squid ever measured was almost 13 meters or 43 feet long and weighed nearly a ton.
A person would think such a large creature would not go unnoticed.
But since the ocean is so large and the giant Squid lives so deep underwater, they are very rarely seen and remain elusive to scientists.
Most of what we know about the Giant Squid is what has been discovered from the carcasses floating to the top of the sea and flushed to shore.
Sperm whales have very characteristic features that are very different from the other well-known whale species.
A little-known fact is that the sperm whale is an entirely different family from the other popular whale species.
It’s the largest of the toothed whales and will mesmerize you.
A Sperm whale is reminiscent of the whale portrayed in “Moby Dick” the popular novel.
The sperm whale is named after the uniquely massive bulbous organ called the spermaceti, containing liquid wax, that helps the whale sink or floats in the sea.
Size and Body Description
Eight identified animal species fall into the group of giant squids.
They are Enormous creatures, the females have a maximum length of 43 feet and are approximately 10 feet longer than their male counterparts.
Its overall structure is the same as other types of Squid with eight arms, two tentacles, and a mantle.
Giant Squids have a tongue-like organ covered with rows of sharp teeth inside their beak.
Giant Squids have exceptionally large eyes, the size of footballs.
They are swift, speedy, and agile in the water, their unique body structure helps them accomplish that.
The sperm whale is identified as the biggest of the toothed whale species.
Males can reach up to 17 meters or 60 feet in length, and the females are 12 meters or 37 feet.
They feature a hump rather than a dorsal fin, which differentiates them from other whales. However, they can be challenging to spot with their dark gray color, other than when they show off their tail when diving.
The wrinkled surface area of their skin maximizes heat loss, helping them stabilize their body temperature at the surface and when diving.
The sperm whale has a huge squarish-shaped head comprising a third of its entire body.
The S-shaped blowhole is located to the far front of their heads and slightly to the left and injects a unique and distinctive sprout.
Males have between 40-and 50 teeth located only in their narrow lower jaw; while the females have even fewer teeth.
Range and Habitat
Squid are everywhere and are found worldwide in the world’s deep oceans.
Specimens have been found in the South Atlantic Ocean close to South Africa to Newfoundland and the North Atlantic Ocean near Norway.
They are also found in abundance from Japan to Australia in the Pacific Ocean.
Giant Squids are usually absent in near-polar or tropical regions.
From what scientists have come up with, giant squids live in the deep sea, close to the seafloor.
Squids are mostly found near continental and islands slopes.
Little is known about squids and their habitats, so they may occupy other deep seas.
While the Squid tends to avoid the tropical areas, the sperm whale can be found in the temperate and tropical oceans. The adults are sometimes even found in the higher latitude areas.
The sperm whale needs to be close to the surface to breathe, so they tend to largely avoid the areas that have ice over the surface for this reason. Generally, their preferred depth is 3,300 when moving, only surfacing to sleep and breathe.
They are most frequently found near the edges of underground canyons and continental shelves.
Diet
Giant Squids prefer to consume medium-sized fish.
They will also eat other smaller Squid if they don’t get enough food from other sources.
Giant Squids usually kill their prey by squeezing it with their tentacles and using their teeth to shred it then swallowing it.
They mostly hunt solo, which means they are selective hunters.
Squids more often than not will blend into their surroundings and wait for prey to pass by, then ambush it with a swift violent attack.
A sperm whale can routinely dive down to 2000 feet deep and stay submerged for up to 45 minutes while hunting.
Even more spectacular is their ability to potentially dive to greater depths of over 10,000 feet deep for over 60 minutes.
However, this does take a toll on them, and once they come to the surface, they need to rest and recover for up to nine minutes with deep breaths while calming down.
A sperm whale’s diets consist of many of the larger species that occupy the deeper ocean waters, as this is where they spend a majority of their time. However, what may surprise you is that they eat smaller sharks.
They can consume 3 to 4 percent of their body weight and have a ravenous appetite and a big belly to fill.
Behavior
To most creatures, the giant Squid is placid, and the myths of them attacking and eating humans and large sharks are simply not true.
Due to their mysterious look, many people assume they are aggressive.
Giant Squids usually spend their time alone except during mating.
Their whole reproduction process remains somewhat of a mystery to this day and age.
Males will fertilize the female, and then she will lay eggs in the water.
The eggs hatch and the younglings have to care for themselves from the very beginning.
Female sperm whales travel in pods along with their offspring. This keeps the young safe from predators..
The individual female whales of the pod will circle the individual that is being attacked and create a barrier with their massive bodies to protect it.
Males on the other hand live a life of solitude. They only interact with other members of their species when breeding.
Female sperm whale tends to live much longer than the males of their species.
On a rare occasion, you may find the males traveling in a small pod of bachelors. However, they do not live with the females and young of the species, and if they do have companionship, it will always be with other males.
When it is mating season, the males are competing with each other and will turn from traveling companions to opponents as they battle it out to mate with multiple females during this time.
let’s go back to the original question!
Who would win the battle between a Giant Squid and a Sperm Whale?
Unfortunately, it’s hard to say who would win in a fight because the giant Squid lives in profoundly deep waters and a fight like this has never been witnessed or captured on tape!
More than 20 years ago, a hypothesis surfaced that the sperm whales used their powerful ultrasound shrieks to render the squid prey immobilized before effortlessly scooping them up.
While debated robustly among scientists, it added to the mystery and stories of folklore around whales and the mythical struggles between squids and leviathans that occur every day in the deep oceans.
However, the theory is just speculation and has never been proven.
It is thought that squids make up about three-quarters of sperm whales’ diet in the Southern Ocean, but this has not been witnessed by scientists.
Giant Squids have exceptional eyesight and an impressive sense of smell. They can squirt jets of dark ink into the face of the opponent to block their vision so they can make their escape.
However, when faced with the sheer size and determination of the sperm whale, it appears to provide little protection against what is certainly a formidable predator.
Giant Squid is equipped with a fearsome armory, which includes a barbed swiveling hook, that can leave scars on the bodies of sperm whales but not kill them.
A huge number of Squid beaks are usually found in the stomachs of sperm whales indicating that they almost always win.
So, in my humble opinion, the giant Squid will most certainly lose the fight and be a meal to the larger Sperm Whale!