Point Reyes Light- October 8, 1998
Jumbo squid dies; two more caught
A second pair of jumbo squid were delivered to Bodega Marine Lab last week after the first one was found dead on the bottom of its tank Thursday.
No jumbo squid have survived for long in captivity, so researchers hope to gain some new information about the enigmatic creatures while they have a chance to observe them closely.
Researchers believe the squid species rode the warm water of El Niño to the Northern California Coast last winter. The specimens taken to the laboratory were voluntarily netted by Jim Hie, a Bodega Bay skipper who shares a scientific interest in the species.
Humboldt Squid posses extraordinarily large nerve axons (fibers) that give them acute control over their tentacles and skin patterns.
Biologists are videotaping the five-foot-long squid for Dr. Carl Roper of the Smithsonian Institution, a leading researcher of Dosidicus gigas, also known as the Humboldt Squid because it is usually found in the Humboldt Current off South America.
Dr. Roper is primarily interested in observing how the open-ocean animals propel themselves by funneling sea water through their bodies.
"I'm greatly appreciative and salute the efforts of the good folks at Bodega Bay, the biologists at the Marine Lab and all the volunteers," he said.
Skipper Hie said he found the shoals of jumbo squid about 20 miles out. As a volunteer, he has received only a few cuts from the squids' tentacles for his efforts. "Until you see these things attacking," he said, "you have no idea what they really are."
Attacked while filming squid in the Sea of Cortez, Dr. Roper said he appreciates the opportunity to observe the fierce but reclusive animal propelling itself around a tank.
"It's pretty difficult to get that information in an open area," he said. "There's no way a diver can keep up with them."