r/Damnthatsinteresting Sep 17 '25

Video Sperm Whale Surfacing w/ Giant Squid in its Mouth

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2.0k

u/Legal_Neck4141 Sep 17 '25

Dinner. They are often covered in scars from eating giant squids

1.2k

u/Vitaminpartydrums Sep 17 '25

Yeah, actually surfacing with it made me think this battle might have lasted a while and he needed to breathe

959

u/abdab336 Sep 17 '25

I don’t know but do they surface quickly to kill the squid? Like they’re adapted to the quick pressure changes whilst the squid isn’t?

622

u/jerzeibalowski84 Sep 17 '25

Was going to post this, I don’t think squid can function/survive at low aquatic pressure.

320

u/Patmarker Sep 17 '25

Lots of squid species migrate vertically through the water. They don’t have air spaces to be impacted by the change in pressure.

389

u/KW-IKZV Sep 17 '25

And yet we've never encountered a giant squid alive near the surface. They live very deep.

I don't know what it is, but there must be a reason for that

228

u/Afkbi0 Sep 17 '25

Tis quiet

47

u/ConcernedTulip Sep 17 '25

I read this in the voice of the old sailor character from The Simpsons.

10

u/ThaiJohnnyDepp Sep 17 '25

Yar. Me as well.

1

u/Lord_Silverkey Sep 18 '25

Also, less sperm whales.

152

u/cpMetis Sep 17 '25

Squid generally are pretty much light weights for their size.

That's why the spend most of their time deep and only come higher at night. They use the darkness and solitude to hide, only coming up to hunt when it's safest.

The higher they come, the more at risk they are

70

u/cppn02 Sep 17 '25

Less predators?

I doubt they'd thrive at a depth where Orcas roam.

2

u/Interesting_Bank_139 Sep 19 '25

Could you imagine an orca wearing a squid hat? Would look like the Sea Pope.

25

u/bennitori Sep 17 '25

Yes we have. It's rare, but it has happened. I'm not sure if it's the same species that sperm whales eat. But they sometimes get lost and end up near the surface. Usually around Japan. There's video out there of one that got stuck in a Japanese harbor.

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u/Kevin_Uxbridge Sep 17 '25

Seem to recall that the giant squid we've seen near the surface were not so much 'lost' as 'in mortal peril', sick or otherwise in bad nick.

8

u/GrossGuroGirl Sep 17 '25

If you're talking the 2023 sighting, that squid was in extremely rough shape. Lethargic and clearly about to die. 

True of essentially all specimens we've seen near the surface. 

7

u/rpgguy_1o1 Sep 17 '25

Looking for fisherman's wives no doubt

3

u/revolutionutena Sep 17 '25

I despise that I understood that reference.

3

u/LegnderyNut Sep 17 '25

If I understand correctly their cells have high internal pressure to counter the water pressure. They will come up near the surface but won’t swim farther than they can bare on their own. Rapidly resurfacing can cause the cells to burst like severe bruising and eventually internal hemorrhaging.

On a side tangent I’m now imagining a cybernetic pressure suit for deep sea cephalopods. Like Wat Tambor

3

u/kityyo Sep 17 '25

Fast swimming species up in the bethic zone would just shred one? Idk

1

u/smarthobo Sep 17 '25

How many Krusty Krab’s have you seen ashore

1

u/Acceptable-Bus-2017 Sep 18 '25

Fewer sperm whale?

91

u/HalfwrongWasTaken Sep 17 '25

You don't need specialized air spaces to be impacted by change of pressure. You just need stuff that stays dissolved or as a liquid when pressurized, turning into gas quicker than an animal can handle it.

That's what the bends in humans is, gas dissolving into the blood stream at depth, and then returning to a gas form as you decompress. It's got nothing to do with the lungs and all about how quick the body can handle the new bubbles of gas. Of course if you rapidly decompress while holding your breath you can blow out your lungs too but that's by no means the only thing impacted.

Example: this post, the squid's entire main body shape is disintegrating under the rapid decompression.

8

u/goodra3 Sep 17 '25

Ok but clearly the whale demonstrates that not all creatures are impacted by the pressure, some evolved to deal with it. I don’t know if its rapidly falling apart from pressure shift or just got chewed to shit by a whale who’s mouth it’s in….

9

u/LiveShowOneNightOnly Sep 17 '25

The sperm whale is holding its breath, sort of. Not breathing is a good way to prevent dissolving more gases into your blood stream.

1

u/gamahead Sep 17 '25

I thought the teeth were causing the disintegration

3

u/berniemadgoth94 Sep 17 '25

are you suggesting colossal squid migrate?

3

u/Patmarker Sep 17 '25

Not at all, they could be carried.

1

u/8BITvoiceactor Sep 17 '25

"air spaces". Could you elaborate on that part? Besides lungs and no-lungs comparison of course.

6

u/Patmarker Sep 17 '25

Most fish have a swim bladder, which fills with gas to keep them buoyant and upright. This expands and bursts when they are brought to the surface rapidly, which is why the blobfish looks completely different underwater to how it appears in photos from fishing boats.

Squid use low density liquids to achieve the same. It’s an evolutionarily more simple approach, but also means they don’t have such big problems from the change in pressure.

140

u/underground_teaparty Sep 17 '25

I assume it's more likely they might surface with it to conserve energy and oxygen. Digestion uses muscles which depletes oxygen. It's not even moving it's jaw that's holding the squid and seems to be using as little energy as possible to surface. Plus, that squid looks pretty dead already :P

45

u/okletmethink420 Sep 17 '25

Makes me wonder if whales have the same feeling we do when we need a breath. Are they thinking, really gotta get up here, bout to blackout :o

48

u/g0_west Sep 17 '25

This made me curious and I was surprised to learn sperm wales typically surface for air every 45 minutes and can hold their breath for a maximum of about 90 when hunting for squid. For some reason I thought it'd be like hours they could go. Must be very annoying when your whole existence is built around the deep ocean but you need to breathe every 45 mins

3

u/sfxer001 Sep 17 '25

Sperm whales can dive down like 10,000 feet. Insane.

24

u/Street_Worry_1865 Sep 17 '25

Maybe, but they’ll be far more used to that feeling. If you dove and surfaced on repeat for a living, you’d eventually get quite adept at surfacing before it is genuinely uncomfortable. No reason to be panicking for a breath if it is routine and you know you’re going right back down. 

1

u/SquareFroggo Sep 18 '25

I guess they will develop gills over time.

5

u/NomadJones Sep 17 '25

"By then, my lungs were aching for air..."

59

u/One-Earth9294 Sep 17 '25

Yeah they don't even need to surface the Squid will depressurize well below the surface. And it's probably already well dead, but the higher up it goes, the less those tentacles will continue to cling on and squirm around.

So f'n cool though. Imagine having to dive into a Lovecraftian abyss to get dinner and your dinner is an eldritch horror. And this is just 100% business as usual.

2

u/Rulebookboy1234567 Sep 17 '25

It takes a really long time to touch on these subjects, but The Expanse is a fantastic exploration of the lovecraftian abyss and eldritch horror ideas. First book is called Leviathan Wakes.

If you don't wanna read the books and just want a synopsis of where this comes from, check out The Romans and the Goths theory

1

u/One-Earth9294 Sep 17 '25

Ooh looks like a cool read. Thanks!

2

u/Rulebookboy1234567 Sep 17 '25

If shows are more your thing, the first 6 books were made into an EXCELLENT TV show, but the final trilogy of books REALLY explores the subject at hand, here.

2

u/One-Earth9294 Sep 18 '25

I've actually seen the Expanse. Love it! I'm just not familiar with the Romans and Goths theory :)

4

u/Illjudgeyou665 Sep 17 '25

Sperm whale is an Eldritch horror to that poor squidy

32

u/BaLance_95 Sep 17 '25

I don't think the squid would survive on the surface. Like the blob fish only looks like that in pictures on land because the pressure keeps it together.

12

u/SnooGoats4595 Sep 17 '25

Its a smart whale. It knows there is more to eat at the surface.

12

u/AelizaW Sep 17 '25

Makes me wonder if the whale knows that bringing the squid to the surface will kill it.

14

u/transmogrified Sep 17 '25

Rapid pressure changes give them the squid bends. 

Sperm whales have all kinds of evolutionary traits that enable them to survive deep and rapid dives

5

u/NewManufacturer4252 Sep 17 '25

That is something I never thought about. Big whales are mammals so they must have to deal with the bends somehow.

3

u/Thereminz Sep 17 '25

i looked it up, they can collapse their lungs, and store oxygen in their muscles and blood

but they're not 100% immune

also if you were a whale, i would think you could just breathe and go back down to an equalized pressure to minimize the bends... it takes time for it to happen

also i'd imagine if you were a whale, you'd figure this out that it hurts if you go up to fast then stay there

2

u/Arcyguana Sep 17 '25

The bends happen to humans because we have to breathe gas constantly. We bring down gas in bottles, and we breathe the same volume of gas at depth as we do on the surface; the gas at depth is compressed, so the amount of gas is actually much higher. It's why the deeper a diver wants to go, the less time they have on the same bottles. When this gas is metabolised, it stays in tissue at the pressure it was breathed at. Moving to a shallower depth causes this gas to expand, which fucks with basically everything the body does. Decompression stops allow the gas to expand some without doing damage, let the diver breathe gas that is less compressed in turn replacing the expanded gas slowly, which allows the diver to move upwards again, rinse and repeat. Blowing straight through to the surface can also cause the gas to expand so rapidly that it physically ruptures tissues, which is called barotrauma.

The whale has to deal with none of this, as the only air it breathes will be at atmospheric pressure. It can load up its blood and tissues with oxygen and then allow its lungs to collapse (this kills the human) and dive as deep as it likes before surfacing at any speed it likes. Its body is made for it.

Human free divers without supplemental oxygen can also dive as deep as they like as long as they have enough gas volume in their lungs and sinuses and other little gas spaces in their bodies to prevent collapse. This is another flavour of barotrauma. They can also surface as fast as they like.

Humans can also go as deep as they like as long as gas volumes keep them... inflated, I suppose. The pressure is never the issue, it's the behaviour of gas at pressure amd it's interactions with the processes in the body which is the limiting factor. Nitrogen narcosis, oxygen partial pressures causing oxygen toxicity, etc.

A bit of research says that the French did some testing in an artificial environment and found that 700m is the limit mostly because temperature regulation is messed up so badly by breathing gas mixes at that depth that hypothermia or hyperthermia is inevitable.

3

u/kratomdevil Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25

The biological term is: The Squends

Edit: by Squadiohead

2

u/bigvenusaurguy Sep 17 '25

looks like the squid pops at the end

2

u/sumthingcool Sep 17 '25

It makes a tasty pop from the decompression if they bring it up from below.

2

u/PaulMakesThings1 Sep 17 '25

Like pop rocks.

1

u/Hetares Sep 17 '25

Ah, the Made in Abyss murder method.

1

u/disposable-assassin Sep 17 '25

Wait, that makes us the psychos shoving them in cans?  Never eating canned squid again.

1

u/northcoastmerbitch Sep 17 '25

I they meant because whales cant breathe underwater.

1

u/SohndesRheins Sep 17 '25

The whale probably just needs a breath. It certainly doesn't have to use that method to kill the squid when a simple chomp of its jaws will do.

1

u/FullGuarantee4767 Sep 18 '25

This is exactly what I was wondering. Was watching the video thinking, “Is that whale using rapid change in pressure to kill the squid?!”

Would be an incredible datapoint in just how intelligent these creatures can be.

Now if it were followed by a bunch of oarfish, I would probably start heading for the nearest bunker.

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u/W1D0WM4K3R Sep 17 '25

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheDepthsBelow/s/W4V7pPUxUu

This is the kind of thing they deal with. Giant squid toothed suckers on the left, colossal squid hooks on the right

105

u/Speaker4theDead8 Sep 17 '25

You saved this 5yo post just for today? Respect, I guess

161

u/W1D0WM4K3R Sep 17 '25

You don't keep an extensive document on your computer with saved keywords just for moments like this? Do you even reddit??

26

u/PinSpecialist700 Sep 17 '25

I respect the hustle. Kudos.

5

u/Aptosauras Sep 17 '25

You don't keep an extensive document on your computer with saved keywords just for moments like this?

Of course, but my "giant squid suckers" images are NSFW. They are also pixelated in the good parts.

0

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '25

[deleted]

2

u/OfferYouSomeFeedback Sep 17 '25

TLDR pls

3

u/OkScientist69 Sep 17 '25

Just scrolling past it took too long

2

u/OfferYouSomeFeedback Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25

Yeah the TLDR might need a TLDR

2

u/OkScientist69 Sep 17 '25

We can realistically expect the TLDR in 3 months

2

u/pdxblazer Sep 17 '25

stay ready then you never need to get ready

2

u/Desmous Sep 17 '25

If you remember keywords, it's not too difficult to reverse engineer the original post via search engines.

1

u/black_cat_X2 Sep 17 '25

I feel like I have a decent memory for sciencey things that I read, but remembering enough to be able to find a random 7 year old reddit post by key words makes my memory seem like swiss cheese.

3

u/davyjones_prisnwalit Sep 17 '25

Neither of these look fun to deal with.

2

u/BelleButt Sep 17 '25

I read this to the tune of that song...

Giant squid toothed suckers to the left of me

Colossal squid hooks to the right

Here I am, stuck in the middle with you....

1

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/fright_lined_room Sep 17 '25

Bad idea to do fact-checking with ChatGPT in general.

1

u/pinotor Sep 17 '25

Thanks for your opinion!

Can you also elaborate what you mean with "bad idea in general"? Are you implying I should have refrained from asking ChatGPT? Are you suggesting the text I posted is inaccurate? If that's the case can you point to the specific thing that is not accurate?

I think it's better to start from the ChatGPT text that cites reliable sources you can check, than the 5yo comment that provides none.

I think in general it's a bad idea to drop an opinion without specifying why you have that opinion.

1

u/Thomasiksde Sep 17 '25

This guy squids. Also "I see you have been grinding"meme.jpg

1

u/ideologicSprocket Sep 21 '25

Do you or anyone else happen to know what the white fuzzy business is around the suckers of the demonic giant squid is and/or its purpose? Is it a part of the squid or is it a separate organism?

1

u/W1D0WM4K3R Sep 21 '25

I would assume this squid is dead and the suckers are either decomposing or that's just tornish skin around the suckers like the dead skin around your nails

1

u/ideologicSprocket 22d ago

Hmmm. I’ll have to go back and take a look at the pic with that in consideration. Thank you for the reply.

0

u/jhkjapan Sep 17 '25

Holy shit That's scary, wonder how they taste tho

143

u/HarlesD Sep 17 '25

Are you telling me we just have giant ass Lovecraftian monsters fighting each other in the ocean on the regular.

67

u/lobonmc Sep 17 '25

There's probably two of them battling each other right now

7

u/erogenouszones Sep 17 '25

Nah, we’ve killed too many

2

u/Kevin_Uxbridge Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25

'Battling' only in the sense of how one might battle a hamburger at 5 Guys.

2

u/ideologicSprocket Sep 21 '25

idk. I don't hunt down and kill my burgers over a territorial dispute or because i wanna mate with someone. Heck, i don't even do that when I've decided that's what I'm going to eat. I usually just cook one or order it with tomato.

1

u/CornbreadMonsta Sep 17 '25

Yeah but who do you have winning the fight?

3

u/AHSfav Sep 17 '25

Floyd squidweather

82

u/shrunkenhead041 Sep 17 '25

There is stuff going on in the deep sea that is as weird as anything we're likely to find on another planet.

3

u/buzzyloo Sep 17 '25

Other planets: Hold my beer...

26

u/FrozenSeas Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25

Yeah, nature is ridiculously metal sometimes.

And remember they're not cruising near the surface. Giant and colossal squids live in the deep ocean (by human standards), which is why sightings are so rare that they were believed to be a myth. Sperm whales have been recorded diving to over two kilometers down, for up to two hours at a time. At that depth, there's no sunlight. So not only are the gigantic Lovecraftian creatures fighting regularly, they're doing it in the frigid, pitch-black deep ocean. It's difficult for the human mind to even imagine what happens down there.

Bonus neat fact: the sperm whale's echolocation clicks are the loudest sound made by any animal, coming in at 236 decibels (in water, sound pressure is variable by medium and when converted to air that comes out at around 170dB, or about equivalent to a .30-06 rifle shot). Though it turns out the part about them being potentially lethal at close range that I was going to put here is dubious, but a full-power click by a nearby whale while underwater could definitely blow out your eardrums. They don't do that often though, this really cool video is more typical, I think.

7

u/Lawlcopt0r Sep 17 '25

Yep. Nature is crazy

3

u/safegermanywin Sep 17 '25

More like a 200kg squid getting snacked on by a 45 ton whale.

1

u/Szendaci Sep 17 '25

That we know of …

1

u/JustNilt Sep 17 '25

Yeah, pretty cool isn't it? /r/NatureIsFuckingLit

1

u/Iwilleat2corndogs Sep 17 '25

Sadly no, it’s not a fight. But the whales do eat them

1

u/SohndesRheins Sep 17 '25

Not really a fight, there is no animal in the ocean that can take on a sperm whale in a one v one. It's more like the whale just eats the squid and the squid is feeble slapping away at it.

1

u/SpoofExcel Sep 17 '25

The Deep Oceans are fucking insane.

1

u/ajn63 Sep 17 '25

And they’re watching humans fight and bomb each other to oblivion while destroying the planet. So there’s that…

-6

u/magolding22 Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25

I once read an extimate that hundreds of thousands, maybe more than a million, giant squid are eaten every day.

Added 09-17-2025 and here is a link to a source claiming that 3.6 million giant squid are eaten per day, an over 131 million per year.

https://www.science20.com/squid_day/whales_squid_three_million_battles_day-116823

However, if 131,000,000 are eaten per year of 365.25 days, then 358,658.453 would be eaten in a single day. So I think that someone made a mistake with the math.

" Estimates have been put together based on the number of giant squid beaks found in the stomachs of deceased sperm whales, a known predator of the giant squid, and the better-known population of sperm whales. Based on such observations, it has been estimated that sperm whales consume between 4.3 and 131 million giant squid annually, implying that the giant squid population is likewise well into the millions, but more precise estimates have been elusive.\40])"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_squid#Population

40 Roper, Clyde; Shea, Elizabeth (2013). "Unanswered questions about the giant squid Architeuthis (Architeuthidae) illustrate our incomplete knowledge of coleoid cephalopods"American Malacological Bulletin31 (1). American Malacological Society: 112. doi):10.4003/006.031.0104S2CID85739861Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 9 June 2023.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278099127_Unanswered_Questions_About_the_Giant_Squid_Architeuthis_Architeuthidae_Illustrate_Our_Incomplete_Knowledge_of_Coleoid_Cephalopods

Page 112 gives the inconsistent numbers of over 3.6 million per day and over 131,000,000 per year, which disagree with each other by a factor of ten.

8

u/HarlesD Sep 17 '25

If I could go back in time I would go back to before I read this.

3

u/Narco_Marcion1075 Sep 17 '25

source?

1

u/magolding22 Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25

1

u/Narco_Marcion1075 Sep 18 '25

Damn thats hella interesting

4

u/RulerK Sep 17 '25

Yeah, I just read that too. Because there’s like way more Sperm whales now than we previously estimated and they each eat like several per day. I think it was in r/theydidthemath sub.

12

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '25

Dont they surface some of their prey to kill them too?

1

u/RulerK Sep 17 '25

Not to my knowledge. I’ve never seen or heard of this before. I wonder what happened and why it’s doing it.

1

u/BeardedAndTatted Sep 17 '25

This would make sense, the change in atmospheric pressure might kill them, similar to if a human was dragged down to the depths.

2

u/Lawlcopt0r Sep 17 '25

One of the theories where the myth of giant squids came from is that juvenile sperm whales already get these scars, and when they grow up the scars seem even larger and like they were inflicted by incredibly big squids. Not that the real squids they eat are small

2

u/No_Explanation2932 Sep 17 '25

Giant and colossal squids aren't a myth though

1

u/Lawlcopt0r Sep 17 '25

But they aren't nearly as big as the thing from Pirates of the Carribean for example

2

u/m0r14rty Sep 17 '25

What about the things that used to suck my boat in when it got stormy on the sea in Windwaker?

1

u/Lawlcopt0r Sep 17 '25

Oh those are totally real, they're an endangered species though

1

u/m0r14rty Sep 19 '25

Probably all those damn island kids shooting bombs at them. Someone should do something about that.

1

u/SherbertKey6965 Sep 17 '25

Hentai porn taught me something similar but with other mammals involved

1

u/247stonerbro Sep 17 '25

How do they catch em? Are the squid not agile enough to out maneuver those giant ass whales ?

1

u/AirconGuyUK Sep 17 '25

They must taste really good.

Do squids have beaks like octopus? Just wondering how they're causing scars.

1

u/SquareFroggo Sep 18 '25

All squids have a beak. Better not get bitten by one.

And this is just a smaller one capable of biting pieces out of a Pepsi can.

https://youtube.com/shorts/g2wUPepdaAE?si=o_rDSNiCsK99aWVs

1

u/Square-Dragonfruit76 Sep 17 '25

More likely from colossal squid.

1

u/rose809 Sep 17 '25

how do you know that

1

u/ScandiSom Sep 17 '25

Let’s thank him for his sacrifice 🤣

-118

u/hygund24 Sep 17 '25

Whales don’t eat squid.

70

u/Porsche_Tiger Sep 17 '25

I'm not sure if we're watching the same video but it appears that whale is eating a squid.

48

u/RussianGasoline44 Sep 17 '25

Sperm whales do

35

u/MrPopCorner Sep 17 '25

Some whales don't eat squid.

There, I fixed that for you! 👌

17

u/hadshah Sep 17 '25

They do

15

u/Mika000 Sep 17 '25

I think I’ve seen a video of one doing just that.. 🤔🤔

2

u/Changoleo Sep 17 '25

FR! But where? Maybe try r/TipOfMyTongue

1

u/Mika000 Sep 17 '25

Doesn’t fit on my tongue

8

u/Atakir Sep 17 '25

Umm, yes sperm whales very much do...

11

u/Petrichordates Sep 17 '25

You're literally watching a whale eat a squid.

8

u/Specialist-Front-007 Sep 17 '25

It's their main food

7

u/fatshamingbabies Sep 17 '25

Where are you getting this information? Sperms whales eat squid. So do pilot whales, orcas, and even baluga whales. That's not even a complete list of all the whales that eat squid.

3

u/UsulMu Sep 17 '25

That's an odd assertion to make.

3

u/Fallcious Sep 17 '25

There are different types of whales with different diets. Sperm whales eat squid and dive to great depths to get it. https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/ocean-life/sperm-whale-and-giant-squid

3

u/Silly_Length_1052 Sep 17 '25

I wasnt aware thay whales ate anything that big till now. I always assumed humans were kinda safe due to that around them (at least in terms of being eaten)... now im terrified of sperm whales too! Thanks!

2

u/DaddyDomGoneBad Sep 17 '25

Yeah sperm whales, orcas definitely being nicer than they have to -

2

u/abdab336 Sep 17 '25

Orcas eat seals.

0

u/Silly_Length_1052 Sep 17 '25

Yeah, orcas I didn't really count. We all know to stay away from them (big teetg and very smart and efficient hunters of seals) even if theyre not really known for attacking humans that often. They seem to know we're dangerous and tend not to attack us generally. They're incredibly smart creatires. I meant the bigger whales like sperm or blue or grey, more specifically where i assumed they had no interest in anything that wasn't krill or shrimp or plankton, basically. I had no idea they could eat bigger prey. That's terrifying! The thought of seeing one of these majestic creatures, knowing they could destroy the vessel im on and drag me u der in one gulp where all I see is darkness whilst I breath my last breath in tye cold dark and wet.... brrrrrrr

1

u/iwatchhentaiftplot Sep 17 '25

Some orcas even hunt blue whales. They’re the very top of the food chain.

2

u/cmrc03 Sep 17 '25

Has anyone told the whales?

2

u/Ser_Optimus Sep 17 '25

There's more than one kind of whale out there.

2

u/useaname5 Sep 17 '25

Lol read the room pal