Surfer killed by White Shark today
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Are those White ****ers still endangered? They look pretty healthy to me.
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Are those White ****ers still endangered? They look pretty healthy to me.
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I've read a few articles that blame the Humboldt Squid for the increased activity. I have yet to see a squid wash up here in Manhattan Beach but we have plenty o juvi sharks.:confused1: -
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I've read a few articles that blame the Humboldt Squid for the increased activity. I have yet to see a squid wash up here in Manhattan Beach but we have plenty o juvi sharks.:confused1:Thats really interesting about the squid. Would it explain adult GWS activity or just the juveniles? The humboldt have been thick up here in monterey recently. There were dozens upon dozens floating dead in the bottom of the shallows last shore dive I went on here, and even a few that were on their last legs.
I wonder how long they will be in the area for, I hear they really do a number on the rockfish population.
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About 100 Humboldt squid wash up on Pacific Grove shore - MontereyHerald.com :
QuoteDisplay MoreLocal scientists aren't sure what caused nearly 100 Humboldt squid to wash up on the beaches adjacent to Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove earlier this week, but at least one professor expects to see more in the coming days.
William Gilly, professor of biology at Hopkins, suspects that during El Niño years, squid venture out of their normal breeding grounds in Baja's Sea of Cortez. The warm nutrient water of El Niño years pushes out the cold, nutrient-rich water that sustains the squid.
"When they re-colonize an area, the vanguard usually goes through this kind of stranding behavior," said Gilly, who has studied the Humboldt squid for more than two decades.
Starting with the El Niño of 1997, the squid, which grow to 6 feet and 100 pounds in their native Baja, have been spotted in the Pacific Ocean about 300 miles offshore from Canada to Chile, including several sporadic sightings in Monterey.
Over the years, there have been many large beaching events on the West Coast, including 1,500 squid washed up in Long Beach in 2004.
Another possibility for the beachings comes from research showing toxins produced by marine algae cause the squid to lose their sense of direction.
Though Gilly does not know whether the toxin affected the beached squid, he said the squid "acted like they were deranged," repeatedly swimming back onto shore.
On Tuesday, many squid stranded on the Hopkins beaches were found, their massive torpedo-shaped
bodies heaving and their trianglular rear fins flapping."Some were dead. Some were alive but not doing well," said Joe Wible, Hopkins' head librarian.
Wible, along with 20 or so Hopkins and Monterey Bay Aquarium staff, attempted to rescue the struggling squid.
"The likelihood of any actually surviving is quite low," Wible said.
The dark red squid, 2 to 3 feet long with enormous eyes and eight foot-long tentacles extending from their mouths, have been observed in Monterey Bay over the past three weeks, Gilly said.
They also have been washing up in small numbers on area beaches over the past two weeks, with reports from Santa Cruz to Pacific Grove.
Gilly expects more squid to beach themselves over the next several days, though not in the large numbers seen Tuesday.
Since early Tuesday, Gilly and Hopkins staff have been gathering the squid off the beaches and the nearby rocky outcroppings.
Gilly and his lab members transferred a few live squid into large tanks housed in his lab, about 200 yards from the beach. Those squid will be used for the lab's ongoing research projects.
Gilly will freeze and ship the majority of the dead squid, along with dissection instructions, to high schools and middle schools all over the country as part of Hopkins' four-year-old educational "Squids 4 Kids" program.
Gilly and his lab team processed dozens of squid Tuesday for the program.
Though El Niño events have displaced the squid, they have a number of characteristics that make them highly adaptable to new environments.
They eat 50 to 60 different species of fish, can change their size from generation to generation to cope with varying food supplies, and can reproduce in huge numbers — the larger females produce translucent egg sacks the size of a small car containing 20 million to 30 million eggs.
"If you designed an animal to do well during climate change, it would be this squid," Gilly said.
It is not known how many of the squid may be living in Monterey Bay, but worldwide estimates could range in the tens of millions, Gilly said.
The squid are not dangerous unless you get your hand past the foot-long tentacles and into the razor-sharp beak, he said.
"Their beaks are designed like sushi knives for cutting up little fish," said Gilly, speaking from his experience of receiving 17 stitches after a bite.
Gilly said the squid may harbor dangerous toxins and cautioned against eating any squid found washed up on shore.
Gilly will be on hand with several of the squid to discuss their life history and perform dissections at this weekend's Bay Area Science Festival Discovery Day at AT&T Park in San Francisco.
Chris Palmer can be reached at cpalmer@montereyherald.com or 646-4494.
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I've read a few articles that blame the Humboldt Squid for the increased activity. I have yet to see a squid wash up here in Manhattan Beach but we have plenty o juvi sharks.:confused1:Juve white sharks have long been common in Santa Monica bay..... ie.... I know they were often caught by H&L and some commerical guys in the 50 and 60s....
Pretty much same for the small ones in San O area.
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