As the orca continued their attack, the sperm whales changed formation, bringing their heads into the middle, tails outwards, deploying their most fearsome weapon: whalers spoke of their prey’s tails as ‘the hand of God’ – dispatching sailors into eternity. This “marguerite” formation (named after the flower) appeared to be less successful, so the sperm whales lined up again, now apparently using our boat as another line of defence. My fears that we were abetting the imminent slaughter by inhibiting the sperm whales’ escape were reversed. We seemed to be helping them.

Photograph: Andrew Sutton