#market squid

[daily-cephalopod]

Todays cephalopod is freshly hatched!

[misc-shellbee]

a lil baby opalescent squid (aka market squid) inspired by the one I caught in my research sample !!

[willoftrees]

caught my first squid this evening down at the edmonds pier!

also took a closeup of its chromatophores still firing even tho it was already dead- looks pretty badass!

**camera struggled to focus for a min there, beware

[pulsethebabyoctopus]

Market squid

[montereybayaquarium]

Ah, so THAT'S what it feels like to be a piece of calamari...

This video was shot by diver @sharkbaitjulian off of Redondo Beach, CA in February. Who wants to be Julian's buddy on the next dive? 

And remember all the squid boats in Monterey Bay a few months back? Here's what they were looking for! Shoals of market squid gather every year to mate along the West Coast—this video gives you an idea of what it's like to be part of the Squid Squad! 

[montereybayaquarium]

Time for some squid science! Our partners at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute have been studying how ocean conditions affect an important species off the California coast: market squid. 🦑🔬

[montereybayaquarium]

The Glow on the Bay

Why are those lighted boats on Monterey Bay at night in summer? Market squid are here!

Commercial squid fishers use bright electric lights to lure these cagey cephalopods to the surface. Large purse seiners quickly encircle the concentrated schools and haul them aboard.

Market squid is the largest commercial fishery in Monterey Bay, with the catch running into thousands of tons in a good year. Some of it turns up as calamari in local seafood restaurants. Much of the rest is sold across the U.S. and around the world.

Part of our history

The squid fishery is a living piece of Monterey’s fishing history, one we reference in our new summer program, “Turning the Tide: The Story of Monterey Bay.”

Chinese fishing families came to Monterey in the 1850s and are credited with starting commercial fishing in the bay. They developed the technique of fishing for squid at night, with a fire burning in a wire basket suspended over the gunwale of their wooden sampans. Squid would rise to the light and were easily dipped out with a net. In those days the squid were salted, dried and shipped to Asia.

Today the process is largely the same, although with modern equipment and on a larger scale. Stadium-bright lights that shine green in the night have replaced baskets of fire. The sampans are long gone. Today, purse seiners can land as much as 40 tons of squid in a few hours.

A well-managed fishery

Much of our Monterey squid still goes to China to be processed, as well as Taiwan or India. That squid is consumed there or shipped around the world. The well-managed California fishery supplies the majority of market squid on the global market.

Fishing takes place when the squid gather in huge spawning aggregations along the coast. To assure that squid get a chance to deposit eggs and hatch a new generation, the fishery shuts down on weekends to let them reproduce undisturbed.   

At the Aquarium, we occasionally exhibit market squid among the anchovies and sardines in the Open Sea galleries. But they’re only with us for a short time, as their life span is just about nine months and they die soon after spawning. While our Husbandry team successfully breeds tropical bigfin reef squid for our Tentacles special exhibition, they haven’t yet figured out how to raise market squid so we can exhibit them year-round.

Learn more about the market squid.

[squidtoons]

Anatomy of the Market Squid

Presented by Squidtoons

Arm: Commonly mislabeled as tentacles, the arms of the cephlapods are typically of the same size.  Beak: The beak is used for tearing and ripping flesh from other animals. It is made of chitin and is often indigestible. Chromatophores: These are skin pigments used to change colors and blend into their surroundings. Using a relative of the market squid, scientists have also recorded how chromatophores flash when plugged to an ipod. Eye: Like many other cephalopods, the market squid is a highly visual predator. While human eyes have to bend their lens to focus on an object, squid eyes can move the position of their lens like that in cameras and telescopes. The market squid's eye also contains a cornea. Fin: Although some squid use their fins as the primary source of locomotion, the market squid uses jet propulsion to move through the water. The fins do provide stability as it moves. Gladius: Unlike its ancestors, most cephlapods have reduced or have lost their shell. The squid's shell has been reduced to the gladius, or pen. The gladius is made of chitin. It supports the squid's mantle and serves as the site for muscle attachment.  Mantle: The mantle houses the main organs of the squid.  Siphon: By relaxing and contracting the mantle, water can be pushed out of the siphon to provide propulsion.  Suckers: Suckers suck like how suction cups suck (Repeat this 5 times). Some larger squids have hooks / claws around their suckers to lock into their prey's flesh. Tentacle: The two longer limbs are the tentacles. It helps to provide stability as it moves through the water.