On the get-a-grip side was the argument that Colin was one of countless victims of natural selection and that we should all put away the Kleenex and move on. Tally up the cost of all the TV coverage and put it towards staging a protest against Japanese whaling. Fair point – to a point.

Yes, perhaps Colin is a victim of natural selection, which we probably can’t reverse. But we want to give it a go.

As humans our instinct is to do what we can to rescue outcasts, particularly if they are babies. And it is difficult not to be just a little moved by the sight of an infant trying so desperately to get a feed. You could say that most of us are hard-wired that way. It’s why as kids we attempt, so often vainly, to save baby birds that have been cast from their nests. It’s why as a society we like to think we care for the vulnerable, the weak and the dispossessed. Yet, when it comes to the animal world, we are often powerless to intervene.

That is why the story is so compelling.

Colin has brought into sharp focus just how vulnerable these huge creatures are. Our encounter should galvanise us to take even stronger action against the Japanese whalers when their season of butchery starts up again.