Episode Information

This is the story of two marine giants: the largest predator on Earth, and one of the largest of all squid. And following them, a team of marine biologists who dive into their world to reveal an epic battle between predator and prey 1,000ft beneath the sea. The sperm whale is the size of a bus and weighs as much as seven elephants. It’s an air-breathing mammal that can dive down over 2km to hunt for squid and stay down there for up 90 minutes. Its prey, the Humboldt squid, is 2m long, 50kg, and a voracious predator in its own right. The squid are strong, agile and quick-witted. So how does the sperm whale manage to catch them? We learn where the whales go, where the squid go, and how the whale sets up what could be an ingenious ambush to capture squid when they are at their most tired after hunting forays in the warmer surface water.