squids off so cal shores

[marpac]

what's the story of the squid invasion off the california coast lately, I've heard that divers are being confronted by these squid apparently there has been a surge in
births of the humbolt squid recently and the news I'm sure as usual are over playing
the presence of the squids (for the ratings and all that) saw the piece on ABC monday
8/11/09 @11:00pm.

anyone have any useful info on the Humbolt squid out there and what's happening?
any divers have experienced encounters with squid recently?

thanks in advance for the response

 

[drbill]

Some of the news stories I've seen on this are blown way out of proportion. I saw one in which a Humboldt squid specialist (no names) stated that each female Humboldt could have millions (or was it billions of baby squid). Such a claim is preposterous since even if they can produce that many eggs in a single spawning (quite possible), most die from predation and other factors.

A number of the attacks on divers have really been little more than unnerving inquisitiveness by the squid... pulling on camera equipment, grasping regs or other parts opf the kit, etc. This is not to say that none of the reported encounters were just "inquisitive," but one has to keep in mind the tendency to be less than objective when confronted with a significant predator that can do serious harm or even cause death, and the human tendency to sensationalize a bit.

Are these squid dangerous? Potentially, yes. However I've also had reports of snorkelers and divers swimming with them off Catalina during daylight without incident. I dove in the vicinity of that site yesterday, but saw none of them.

They do seem to be spreading over the past decade and have been seen as far north as Alaska. I wrote a recently "Dive Dry with Dr. Bill" newspaper column on them. Check it out:

Star Thrower Educational Multimedia (S.T.E.M.) Dive Dry Column

DISCLAIMER: I am NOT an expert on these critters and have not had an encounter with them either here off Catalina or in the Sea of Cortez where I used to work.