Blog

After hearing about these explosive market squid mating events for a few years, I was finally able to see it in person and capture a few images in the process. These short-lived mollusks go out with a bang. After amassing in shallow waters to mate, they deposit their egg capsules (each containing up to 200 eggs) into massive blankets of white, and die shortly after.

Some things I found interesting:

• They make up California’s largest commercial fishery, exclusively targeting spawning aggregations (!)
• Each female is able to lay up to 2000 eggs in up to 20 capsules
• Eggs hatch in around 2-4 weeks (depending on pH and oxygen levels, and temperature)
• These squid only live 6-9 months
• ‘Sneaker’ males are a thing

Totally worth the hours of traffic on the 405 and a late nights washing gear after midnight.

References if you are into those type of things :)

https://academic.oup.com/mollus/article/82/1/37/2459933
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5147904/