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Have some squid

You might be forgiven for thinking that the ocean is an endless bounty of edible goodies when you walk outside and find squid just strewn everywhere on the beach, waiting for you to pick them up and eat them. This happened the other day at work, when a group of juvenile Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas) decided to sun themselves on the beach. And then they died. And some seabirds got a good meal out of it. Enjoy some pictures and video.

Squid galore.

In the video above, you can see the squid’s chromatophores still flashing red + white as it contemplates how it’s going to jump up and grab me.

Eyeing each other.
They were still busy trying to grab whatever disturbed them.
The suckers are surrounded by little chitinous teeth, which are cute at this size, and less cute on the adults.
The business end of a squid. The parrot-like beak conceals a radula just behind it, reminding you that this animal is just a tarted-up snail.
The beak.
Squids waiting patiently to be picked apart by seabirds.

Thanks to Megan Jensen for shooting some of these photos while I bravely poked at near-dead squid.

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