[jamesbkel]

A quick addition to the awesomeness of sperm whales: part of the reason they dive so deep/long is to hunt giant squid. While a sperm whale vs. giant squid battle has never been observed, there are multiple counts of sperm whales with scars that are from squids and in some cases almost certainly from giant squid.

[JonnieCache]

They find giant squid beaks inside sperm whale stomachs too.

[mbell]

Interestingly this, combined with scars is really the only way we know how big giant squid can get. The largest that has been actually observed or caught is really quite small in comparison to the sizes indicated from sperm whale data.

[mbell]

I should add that this topic made me take a second look at giant squid data (what can i say, i think they are really interesting creatures). It does appear that large giant squid have been found dead but never seen alive or caught. Those seen in a well documented manor or caught have been around 25ft in length max, while the expected maximum size is around 60ft with the largest dead specimen being about 59ft long, although that was in 1878 so i don't consider it overly reliable data.

[wazoox]

Yes, that's apparently what causes them to secrete ambergris.

[stephth]

Add to the list the story where a large sperm whale managed to sink a whaleship that was attacking multiple of its kin [1] (story which later inspired Moby-Dick).

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_(whaleship)#Whale_attack

[Todd]

The book "In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex" by Nathaniel Philbrick is great, BTW.