‘Well, monsieur,’ replied the Canadian, whose enthusiasm had diminished; ‘it was a terrible sight indeed. But I am not a butcher, I am a hunter, and this was just butchers’ work.’ ‘It was a massacre of evil animals,’ said the captain, ‘and the Nautilus is not a butcher’s knife.’ ‘I prefer my harpoon.’
Sperm whales don't even prey on baleen whales, as they do in this scene. They do feed on giant squid!
"But I have every reason to believe that the food of the sperm whale—squid or cuttle-fish—lurks at the bottom of that sea, because large creatures, but by no means the largest of that sort, have been found at its surface."
- Melville, "Moby-Dick"
