Big Squid Beached - 7/11/09
 

Satuday morning I saw a live big squid washing around in the surf after
surfing. I started collecting them into a 6' deep tide pool, and swam after
some, that got away. All of the ones that I caught were alive.
There were dozens of them swimming in shallow water, and occasionally
beaching themselves.

The demon filled tidepool attracted a large crowd of beachgoers.

This doesn't happen very often!! :)


Watch video at this link.
http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y11...ea07110912.flv




http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y11...ea07110911.jpg


My wife got very brave for a picture!!



http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y11...ea07110922.jpg

That is too badass...:you_rock:

Heard one of the commercials talking yesterday about getting them in the canyon...

That is awesome!

Great post Larry,
What size yellowtail is that bait for? :reeling:

Here's an article from the Bay Area reporting the squid washed up after an early morning earthquake.

However, like most 'science' (eh hem global warming, MLPA) from the Bay Area, this seems anecdotal, as there is no actual science or data in the article.
But it could be a possibility.

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local...l-Quake--.html

Great post! Cool video too.

Willy

that too cool did you eat any as that is prime calimari steak.

good chum would have used for bait.

Nice post and props to your esposa for being brave!:cheers1:

5 years ago, they had them wahs up in Laguna. There was tons of them. No One has ANY idea why they do this. Its a very uncommon ordeal, but happens every couple years.

we saw a bunch of them at PB point on saterday mornin, full moon was friday night, it is weird seeing this many humbolts neer shore...a few years ago the humbolts washed up and orcas where spotted just off the coast!!!
We fished the outside edge of the kelp infront of PBpoint/hermo's and caught two shortWSB's (on the spoon??) a bunch of cali's and sandy's and also a 7-8' sevengill (which i havn't seen in months)...good times!!!

Very cool! I heard them talking about this and the earthquake that caused this on the news this morning.

I checked the earthquake web page and there was a 4.0 earthquate
19 miles WSW of La Jolla Saturday am.

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/loca...e--.html?yhp=1


Cool but if you listen to the information carefully in the video, scientists and the lifeguards all doubt any connection.

For some reason that makes a good "story". :rolleyes: At least 10 people have sent me similar links, excited about the connection to the earthquake, an unfounded urban myth hyped by the news media(especially local news) and parroted by the public.

I saw a squid washed up on Friday morning after surfing too -- think they had been around out there all week ....... Squid premonition? :)

Here is a little better take:
http://cryptoworld.co.uk/jumbo-squid...er-earthquake/

I'm pretty sure that the type of squid that have been washing up are Humboldt Squid. They have been doing this for as long as I can remember. Usually about this time of year and not every year.

Back when I was lifeguarding at LJ Shores in the late 1970's there was a major beaching event. Hundreds, maybe thousands of these squid beached themselves. They were all alive but would not return to the sea. Folks who like to eat squid swarmed the beach to harvest the bounty. The sight of a 90 pound Asian guy dragging 50 pounds of squid up the beach and throwing it in the trunk of his car sticks with me even today.

The squid beaching became a media event with reporters from all networks descending on the Shores and filing their reports. One guy who worked for UPI came up to me while I was working and did an interview, complete with photos. The story went out worldwide and even although only my name was mentioned in the article, interested readers somehow found me. I started getting calls from all sorts of people from all over the world wanting to know more about these squid. As if I knew anything... I was just the guy in the red swim trunks.

It was a very interesting event. Somewhere I have a 35 year old newspaper photo of me holding up a four foot long squid for the world to see. If I can find it, I will post. The photo was published in papers everywhere. I got calls from relatives back east and friends in Europe and Australia who saw the article.

Some of the callers had very strange requests. Some teacher in Alabama wanted me to give a lecture to her sixth grade class on squid and other sea life. I was even asked out on a couple of dates. It was a very weird couple of days.

Everyone is supposed to have at least 15 minutes of fame. I guess that was mine.

Bob

The media hype over this has been pretty funny. I work at the NOAA lab next to Scripps and ABC World News was here the end of last week doing a few interviews. It was aired on Friday. There have been interviews by the BBC as well. Some of the lesser media reporting has been downright dramatic and silly, check out this link for a good laugh:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcKQt5hHDXg

My 80 year old neighbor said that these kind of squid can take you right off of a boat, esp. people wearing red or orange. :eek: I just said, OK thanks. Wow/. :( (Humboldt squid, it's the new JAWS.)