Viral genocides, fundamentalist STDs, famines in a test tube. As effective genetic engineering moved from tricky legality to illegal ubiquity, military analysts published detailed nightmares about what terrorists and enemy armies would do with the technology.

They were the only ones surprised when the first velociraptor ran through a suburban street, camera on its head and drone following above, or when a kraken, ship-sized and with strange metallic glints on his skin and eyes, was first seen in the hurricane-ravaged Pacific Ocean.

That's when whaling ships began to disappear.