Ecology & Zoology

The Jaffe Laboratory at UC San Diego posted some lovely videos of market squid mating aggregations off La Jolla in Southern California. Check them out here. The first one is just classic: murky green water, and a seemingly endless field of squid mating, spawning, and dying. The piles of "egg fingers" they've produced hint at the enormity of the next generation--most of which will be eaten before they can take part in their own orgy. The second one answers the question of what happens to the dead parents. Marine predators of all kinds love to reap this easy harvest, but the one we see here is…

Do sperm whales use sonar to stun giant squid? In a word: maybe. I delved quite enthusiastically into the topic last year, and came out tantalized and frustrated by limited evidence. So I was very excited to see an article in the Smithsonian called The Sperm Whale's Deadly Call. Is this new research, finally showing once and for all that sperm whales knock out their prey by very loud shouting? No. It is a lovely piece about sperm whales and all the noises they make, but Eric Wagner doesn't even mention squid until the end of page 2: But most of a sperm whale’s clicking, if not most…

Frankincense is a milky, fragrant resin used in incense and perfumes across the world and is also a key part of the Christmas story but trees are declining so dramatically that production could be halved over the next 15 years, according to a new study in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology. But global warming isn't the culprit on this one, it is most likely insect attack.  Frankincense is obtained by tapping various species of Boswellia, a tree that grows in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian peninsula. Yet despite its economic importance – incense has been…

I missed reporting it when it happened at the end of November, but a group of Indian fishermen caught a rather larger squid than they were expecting: This rare squid, caught by the fishermen of King Jesus boat, looks like a mini shark. It is about three feet in length and two-and-a-half feet in breadth.  The location was the port of Malpe, on the Arabian Sea, and the species is undeniably Thysanoteuthis rhombus, the diamondback squid. T. rhombus is notable for its extremely descriptive Latin name--why yes, it is fairly rhomboid!--and its floating egg masses. They are the only known…

To recap: in 2011, the California market squid fishery caught tons of squid (118,000 tonnes to be exact) and was all set to close. However, some fishers noted the continued abundance of squid in the ocean and petitioned to keep catching. Then Oceana spoke up on behalf of the squid, with an argument neatly summarized by Geoff Shester, Oceana's California program director, as Protect Calamari, Save the Whales: According to some squid fishermen, the remaining squid will “go to waste” if they are not caught. This notion is simply wrong and contradicts basic science. The ocean…

Slow Food's Michele Rumiz has posted a ruminative piece about squid fishing on Unije, a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea: Every November, the island calls its aficionados to fish squid (called lignjada in Croatian). . . . No sounding leads, nets or electronic devices: they fish using togna - line, and totanara as bait. This is why the more than 20 fishermen involved could manage to fish only a little more than 50 kg of squid in 4 hours. It might seem like a lot, but it's nothing compared to an industrial fishery, which would get the same result in a few minutes with a much smaller crew.…

Slow Food's Michele Rumiz has posted a ruminative piece about squid fishing on Unije, a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea: Every November, the island calls its aficionados to fish squid (called lignjada in Croatian). . . . No sounding leads, nets or electronic devices: they fish using togna - line, and totanara as bait. This is why the more than 20 fishermen involved could manage to fish only a little more than 50 kg of squid in 4 hours. It might seem like a lot, but it's nothing compared to an industrial fishery, which would get the same result in a few minutes with a much smaller crew.…

Squids are mercurial, unpredictable creatures of extremes. Call them abundant, call them quite rareIt depends on the climate--the sea and the airOne species expands, another contractsThese are the data, these are the factsSometimes it feels like they're growing too fastBut it helps them respond and it's why they can lastThrough environmental change . . .  I've been talking a lot about Humboldt squid recently, and their ability to respond to poor conditions by simply staying small. If they spawn when they're little, they can't make as many babies, but at least they can keep the population…

The Humboldt squid's "invasion" of California has been a sophisticated series of move and counter-move. They're here, then they're gone; they're big, then they're small. I've explained--and Professor Gilly has explained in greater detail--how these animals have probably been reacting to environmental change. But if you'd rather watch a short video than have to read all that stuff, KGO-TV will oblige you:

Before you get too horrified, let me clarify: they were squid babies, and the shopping cart was underwater. I learned about the discovery from NewsTalkZB, which reports that at an aquarium in Wellington,  30 squid are expected to hatch tonight. Discovery programme manager Julian Hodge says the squid were found in a discarded shopping trolley during a clean-up of Wellington Harbour three weeks ago. Nearshore squid normally lay their eggs on surfaces like rocks or sand or shells, but they will just as happily lay on manmade surfaces like pier pilings, beer bottles, and . . .…