ScienceBlogs (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/5i-0&fd=R&url=http://scienceblogs.com/deepseanews/2008/08/one_question_squid_quiz.php&cid=1236171891&ei=8a-iSKetB6SeygTn48C3Bg&usg=AFQjCNExKGGIy9m5kzZKMR4PNb94y1MKaQ)
One question squid quiz (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/5-0&fd=R&url=http://scienceblogs.com/deepseanews/2008/08/one_question_squid_quiz.php&cid=1236171891&ei=8a-iSKetB6SeygTn48C3Bg&usg=AFQjCNExKGGIy9m5kzZKMR4PNb94y1MKaQ)
ScienceBlogs - 21 hours ago
I had never heard of the genus or seen the video 'til this morning, but even if you don't study squid, but there's no forgetting this one. ...


More... (http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=T&ct=us/5-0&fd=R&url=http://scienceblogs.com/deepseanews/2008/08/one_question_squid_quiz.php&cid=1236171891&ei=8a-iSKetB6SeygTn48C3Bg&usg=AFQjCNExKGGIy9m5kzZKMR4PNb94y1MKaQ)

We have a thread about this somewhere deep in our forums... end of 2005 or 2006, I believe? Richard Ellis used the imagery of "elbows" for this species.

Make that end of 2003! Here is the thread:

http://www.tonmo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1233

Does it occur to anyone else that it is a bit odd that after years of searching, now it seems that just throwing a camera into deep water produces some kind of fantastic squid? When you throw in the large numbers of common squid and octos appearing where they have not been known to frequent it suggests something's up. Good year for ceph reproduction? Environment changes forcing them to new digs? One thing I don't see mentioned is if they are missing from their normal habitats. The few notices I have seen says normal fishing grounds have had good catches.

I think a lot of it is that remote camera technology is getting a lot better for doing it on the cheap, and some groups (e.g. MBARI) have realized that they should show their ROV footage to the experts. I doubt that there are new, weird squid species suddenly popping into the sea, but it's quite possible a lot are having population booms, since cephs have very rapid population growth when their predators are eliminated (e.g. by overfishing) or when new areas become habitable (e.g. by climate change.)

I doubt that there are new, weird squid species suddenly popping into the sea, but it's quite possible a lot are having population booms, since cephs have very rapid population growth when their predators are eliminated (e.g. by overfishing) or when new areas become habitable (e.g. by climate change.)

It is the casual observence of seeming population explosion that make me curious. It seems that someone should be tracking this as there are just enough public reports (with their exaggerations) to suggest it may be significant (at least it would set a time-line for cycles). This year I have seen reports on seeming over abundance of jelly fish, squid, octopus and crown of thorns. Are these cycles, more attention to the sea, better observation ability or something else? It is particularly odd to me since there also seems to be a lot of hungry whales beaching themselves but maybe cephs are not the food of the types of whales going hungry.

I hope the data is being collected and made accessable. Such an interesting time to become a marine biologist. Ahhh, roads not taken (or explored as yet).