Humboldt Squid at Point Lobos

[dawn11]

thought someone might be interested in these images i shot this past friday (December 5) at Point Lobos State Reserve. I was diving there and just before we started to head home, someone noticed something pinkish on the beach in the distance shooting water into the air. when we climbed down the rocks to the beach, we found 20 humboldt squid which had beached themselves (possibly biotoxins from red algae blooms?). they were still alive and changing colors, quirting water and ink. really amazing and beautiful, if not a little sad...
http://f1.pg.briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/smallthings11/lst?.dir=/Point+Lobos&.view=l

 

[Scubaroo]

Were they juveniles? They appear to be Humboldt squid, but I thought they grew larger.

Not something you would want to meet underwater in any great number!

 

[alaity47]

What a shame... they look like they'd be beautiful creatures in the water, but they look darn creepy lying on the beach like that! Really need pictures, but definitely sad.

 

[Scubaroo]

Just had a thought - even though it's interfering with Mother Nature a bit, did you try to put any back in the water? Not that I'd personally want to pick one up with bare hands!

Touching live ctopus and squid rates pretty high on my icky-meter.

 

[dawn11]

there were actually a few still swimming around in the cove, but they weren't making much progress, bumping into rocks and such. they normally live in deep water (600 to 1,200 feet - and since monterey is right near the continental shelf, that's close by, but DEEP). they were obviously sick if they were in the cove, so there wasn't much use trying to get them back in the water. seals and birds had already taken a few chunks out of some of them.

no one (and there were a few divers who'd been diving since the mid-70's) had ever seen anything like it. the ranger at the park also seemed surprised, but said that he had heard of a similar beaching near moss landing, presumeably due to red tide (red algae blooms).

if anyone has any more info, i'd be interested to know more. they were quite large (the body alone was about 15 inches wide and nearly 4 ft) so i believe they were adults.

 

[Scubaroo]

dawn11 once bubbled...
if anyone has any more info, i'd be interested to know more. they were quite large (the body alone was about 15 inches wide and nearly 4 ft) so i believe they were adults.

Sorry - thought they looked smaller in the photos. Didn't open all of them. That's a big squid!

Just moved back from California - I know the area well. Monastery North was my favorite shore dive, never made it down the road to Pt Lobos unfortunately.

 

[adder70]

Yahoo whatever seems to be slow to dead. I wait 5 minutes (now 6 and counting) and get nothing except a blank screen, which appears after at least a full minute. Right clicking and downloading gives no results either.

OH well, they sound like neat pics.

 

[dawn11]

try this link...for some reason that other link was acting slow

http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/smallthings11/album?.tok=bcE.MTABnjUOECMH&.dir=/Point+Lobos&.src=ph


and thanks for even be interested...

 

[Burner]

I dove there the week before this incident. Another dive team saw one of these squids while doing their safety stop. A sea lion also happened to notice, and they got to see the sea lion hunt and catch the squid. I'm guessing something was happening that caused the squids to move out of the deep water.

 

[kelpmermaid]

I remember hearing something about big squid washing up near Two Harbors on Catalina and in San Pedro, but I'm not sure if it was this spring or last fall. I don't recall if there was a explanation at that time...does anyone else recall? Maybe it is something similar.