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While last year's market squid bounty continues into the 2011 fishing season, the market squid's larger cousin is playing hard to get. The Humboldt or jumbo squid--you remember, our hungry friends that grow up to five feet long and eat everything they can wrap their arms around--makes a habit out of making headlines, whether it's invading or invisible. This year, it's the latter.

"Catches of jumbo squid in 2009-2010 seemed limitless," reports Frank Hartzell of the Mendocino Beacon. But they've been conspicuously absent in 2011.

Last year, the market squid off California were so abundant that the fishery actually reached its quota for the first time in history. Normally, squid fishing season is April 1st to March 31st--yep, that's all year. But when they hit the quota back in December 2010, the fishery closed.

However, when April 1st, 2011, rolled around and government officials opened the fishery again, no squid boats sallied out into Monterey Bay. According to the Monterey Weekly,

This is totally cool!

Scotland's leading marine energy test centre has opened its doors to a new generation of developers to test prototype machines, one of which is aiming to harness wave energy using a design based on the humble squid. . . . SQUID, which looks somewhat reminiscent of its namesake, has an inflatable absorber similar to a large balloon which fills with sea water. Sitting just under the surface, the absorber is moved by passing waves and the energy from this motion drives a generator to produce electricity.

I'm not exactly sure how this

As soon as you start studying fisheries science, you hear about the importance of getting fishermen and scientists to talk to each other. It's a truism once you think about it--fishermen know a lot about fishing, and scientists know a lot about science. Put them together and you get fisheries science. But it's useful to confirm that this principle works for, say, squid: