Drawn by the newly arrived throngs of Humboldt squid in Southern California, an underwater photographer hopped in the water with them to snap some photos.
They're smallish for Humboldts, but note how he's grabbing this one--and he didn't get bitten, not even a little bit!
Of course, Schwartz was not without trepidation, especially when he snapped this shot:
I'm not a squid expert but it seems to be an aggressive stance; check out how the tentacles are thrust forward at me. It looks like it was waiting to strike! Someone who has dove with them referred to this as "attack mode" but again, I'm not a squidologist. I'd love to hear from some real experts as to what this stance means.
Technically, those are the squid's arms, not its tentacles. And we prefer the pedantic term teuthologist, mm-kay? In all seriousness, though, I wouldn't call this an attack mode. More like an observation mode.
Whenever a squid wants to look at something, it basically has to orient itself in this stance, because its arms are in front of its eyes. It holds them together in a tight group, pointed at whatever it's watching, perhaps because this reduces drag or perhaps to keep the arms from interfering with its vision.
The squid was probably just as interested in the photographer as he was in the squid!
