May 27, 2024
‘Like a bolt of lightning piercing black clouds, this small common squid exploded on to the scene before me. Falmouth, UK.’
Photograph: Aaron Sanders
Ocean Photographer of the Year
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Malaysia
seen from France
seen from United States
seen from Australia
seen from China
seen from Malaysia
seen from Australia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Australia
seen from Singapore
seen from Italy
seen from T1
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from United States
‘Like a bolt of lightning piercing black clouds, this small common squid exploded on to the scene before me. Falmouth, UK.’
Photograph: Aaron Sanders
Ocean Photographer of the Year
Tentacool and Tentacruel
(As will probably become apparent by the lack of information, I’m not as knowledgeable on Common Squid as I am on most of the other creatures on this blog. So apologies for that.)
The Common, or European Squid can be found right across the UK’s coasts. Along with the two long tentacles they use to catch their prey, they have eight smaller arms gathered around their beak. If the squid is male, then one of these arms is called a hectocotylus, meaning it’s specially adapted to transfer sperm cells over to female squid. If she’s been fertilised successfully, the female squid will then go on to lay long white tubes of eggs that she sticks to solid objects on the sea floor. In total she can lay up to 20,000 eggs at once.