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Vampire Squid And The Evolution Of Cephalopod Sex

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Learning Science From Fiction: A Review Of Ryan Lockwood’s “Below”

In last month’s review of Preparing the Ghost, I mentioned that you can actually learn facts...

Usurped By Legend: A Review Of Matthew Gavin Frank’s ‘Preparing The Ghost’

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Squid Lady Parts

This Bobtail squid was imaged by the Deep Discover ROV in Atlantis Canyon, is less than one foot...

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Danna StaafRSS Feed of this column.

Cephalopods have been rocking my world since I was in grade school. I pursued them through a BA in marine biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, followed by a PhD dissertation at... Read More »

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Squid Egg Masses Are 100% Awesome

Squid Egg Masses Are 100% Awesome

Oct 13 2010 | comment(s)

Well! The last day of the squid fertilization workshop was just as exciting, in its own way, as Sunday's fishing excusion.  
 
The workshop's dozen participants hail from Mexico, Peru, Brazil, USA, Germany, Russia, and Spain. But our passion for cephalopod reproduction is as pure as our backgrounds are diverse. That's right, we are all obsessed with squid sex. So obsessed that we will make ourselves late for lunch with concerns about the chemistry of egg masses, and debate ommastrephid paralarval nutrition well into the night.
 
Yesterday morning we showed each other videos of egg masses and baby squid. We cooed over Susana's paralarvae and applauded Sakurai's shockingly spherical egg masses.
 
Squid Unavailable, Presumed to be Celebrating

Squid Unavailable, Presumed to be Celebrating

Oct 11 2010 | comment(s)

Today is the last of the International Cephalopod Awareness Days: Squid Day! Naturally Squid-A-Day is feeling very festive. Sorry I missed Day Two--yesterday was the first day of the squid workshop and I was exceedingly occupied.

Fittingly enough, today was the workshop's pratical day--the plan was to go out fishing, catch a mature female Humboldt squid, and perform in vitro fertilization with all the brightest stars in the field.

Well, everything went perfectly, except three hours of fishing yielded not a single squid.
Feliz Dia de los Pulpos!

Feliz Dia de los Pulpos!

Oct 08 2010 | comment(s)

Octopus Day 2010 finds me in La Paz, Mexico, eating a homemade corn tortilla with Oaxacan cheese. It is extremely delicious. After the trip to Madagascar, where I found that dairy is just not part of the culture, it pleases my lactophilic sensibilities to be in the land of queso and paletas.

But that's just a fringe benefit. I'm here for the cephalopods, of course. Although today was a travel day, and the squid workshop doesn't start until tomorrow, I did wear my Sir Octopus shirt with pride.
Squids for Schools!

Squids for Schools!

Oct 08 2010 | comment(s)

International Cephalopod Awareness Days start tomorrow! Squid, in case you didn't know, are cephalopods, along with their cousins the octopuses, cuttlefish, and nautilus. Cephalopods are exclusively marine organisms--there are no cephalopods that can live in fresh water, lakes or streams, or on land (tree octopuses are imaginary). Why they are exclusively marine might be an excellent subject for another day, but today let us merely accept it.
The Most Mediagenic Squid

The Most Mediagenic Squid

Oct 06 2010 | comment(s)

Humboldt squid: news when you see 'em, news when you don't.
Now, the mystery deepens: It seems the Humboldt squid, the locusts of the ocean, have vanished from the Pacific north of California this year.
Squid fisheries aren't intrinsically sustainable . . .

Squid fisheries aren't intrinsically sustainable . . .

Oct 06 2010 | comment(s)

More bad news for the Argentine shortfin squid--this is the same fishery that crashed in Argentina last year.
The deep sea fishing business in Taiwan is facing a crisis because of precipitous drops in its squid and saury catch . . . The main reason for the fall is that Taiwanese fishing boats have been unable to secure decent squid catches in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean near the Falkland Islands and Argentina — the world's main squid fishery. It is unknown whether the precipitous plunge is just a cyclical change or a warning sign that marine resources are drying up.