Ecology & Zoology

Stained Squid, Part I

Because I am busy, today you get another picture. This is a baby market squid again, this time stained with methylene blue. Tomorrow (because I will still be busy) you will get to see the arms, which are missing in this picture. Suspense! ...

Blog Post - Danna Staaf - Dec 21 2010 - 12:30am

Stained Squid, Part II

Ahh! Because I was so busy yesterday, I forgot to give you the other half of that baby squid. Here it is! The little blob being held in those tiny, adorable arms is a yolk sac. When they are inside the egg, squid embryos have both an internal yolk sac (ins ...

Blog Post - Danna Staaf - Dec 22 2010 - 6:54pm

Global Crisis in Cephalopods?

Fluctuations in the world squid market tells us that A sharp increase in landings of squid or giant squid (Dosidicus gigas) occurred in Chile in the first 10 months of 2010, over 243 per cent more compared to the same period in 2009... With respect to Arg ...

Blog Post - Danna Staaf - Dec 23 2010 - 12:00pm

Daytime Dining On Squid: An Oceanography Lesson

Blue sharks in the Gulf Stream, in the western Atlantic, probably spend all day eating squid. At first, that doesn't seem remarkable. Every big predator likes to eat squid, and sharks are no exception. And there are plenty of squid in the Gulf Stream, ...

Article - Danna Staaf - Dec 25 2010 - 2:17pm

Winningest Use for Squid Jig

Squid are usually caught by means of a normal fishing line and a special hook-and-lure combination called a jig. Jigs are weighted, glow in the dark, and have several circles of upturned hooks on which the squid's arms and tentacles. Here is a squid j ...

Blog Post - Danna Staaf - Dec 27 2010 - 8:20pm

Squid Canaries?

Bummer! A shipment of Uruguayan squid (probably Illex argeninus, the same species of Falkland Islands' fame) has been blocked by the EU due to high cadmium content. Cadmium, like other heavy metals, is bad for you. As quoted in MercoPress, the head of ...

Blog Post - Danna Staaf - Dec 28 2010 - 11:08pm

California Market Squid: Supplementary Material

A couple of recent articles on the closure of the California market squid fishery focus on the southern (Van Zant in the Long Beach Press-Telegram) and northern (me in the Monterey Weekly) fishing grounds. From the state's Market Squid Fishery Managem ...

Blog Post - Danna Staaf - Dec 30 2010 - 12:42pm

Aravallis, biodiversity. mining and society

Aravalli hills are around 600 km long and cover very rich diversity due to their peculiar location. However unlike temperate hills this hill range passes through hostile climate of Rajasthan and Gujrat on one side and somewhat friendly climate on its other ...

Blog Post - Ashwani Kumar - Dec 31 2010 - 2:16am

Sportfishing Boats Save Squid From Supertankers

Strange but true! Oil supertankers cool themselves by pumping water from the ocean through their overheated innards, but as it turns out, there's more than just water in the ocean. Market squid have been clogging the saltwater cooling pumps of these ...

Blog Post - Danna Staaf - Dec 31 2010 - 2:02pm

Squid Ink Revisited

One of the more commonly known facts about squid is that they squirt ink. When I ask kids, "Why do you think they do that?" the answer is usually "to escape predators" or something similar. This simple truth masks a myriad of wonders. I ...

Blog Post - Danna Staaf - Jan 4 2011 - 12:55am