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Category: Cephalopods • News
Posted on: July 13, 2009 11:34 AM, by PZ Myers
First, California is hit with a small earthquake (that never happens, does it?) and then…the squid appear.
Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!
It's sweet how the Californians try to throw them back in the sea. Have they no knives, no garlic, no pans with hot oil? Because if the squid did, we know what they'd do.
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PZ Myers 11.08.2009
PZ Myers 11.08.2009
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Comments
Posted by: Geoff | July 13, 2009 11:42 AM
Are those humboldts?
Posted by: Qwerty | July 13, 2009 11:45 AM
But the gulls know a good meal when they see one.
Posted by: chad | July 13, 2009 11:46 AM
oh my cubicle seems so lovely now that I see the ocean. Jesus take me now.
Posted by: Glen Davidson
|
July 13, 2009 11:52 AM
Why is California blessed by god?
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
Posted by: mcow | July 13, 2009 11:56 AM
That's the best thing I've ever heard, but it was also really pathetic.
Seriously - squid? Scary?
Posted by: SciencePundit
|
July 13, 2009 12:00 PM
We know why!
Posted by: Ben | July 13, 2009 12:01 PM
Obviously mcow you've never been attacked by wild calimari, dragged into the depths and viciously eaked.
I haven't either, but the thought is enough to put me off seafood until lunch.
Hey! Lunch time!
Posted by: Ben | July 13, 2009 12:03 PM
*beaked. Damned elusive 'b' key.
Posted by: Jared | July 13, 2009 12:04 PM
It's ika that catches itself! Quick, get the wasabi, soy sauce, rice, and nori!
Posted by: Lily | July 13, 2009 12:05 PM
Geoff, I think they are humboldts. Apparently this happens every few years. Here's an article about it from 2005. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/02/0223_050223_giantsquid.html
Posted by: Angel Kaida | July 13, 2009 12:06 PM
There are squid that attack people! That IS scary.
Posted by: Michael The G | July 13, 2009 12:09 PM
Well Done Lily, They are (as far as I can tell from the footage) Humboldts and this is not THAT weird. I am disappointed that no one was running through with a cooler and stocking up on the bounty. I mean, they are dying anyway, why should the gulls get all the goodies? Maybe that's because I haven't had lunch yet ;)
Posted by: The Pale Scot | July 13, 2009 12:10 PM
Off_topic
According to the HuffPost, new atheists are also militaristic, right wing authoritarians.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-wright/why-the-new-atheists-are_b_230448.html
Posted by: Ash | July 13, 2009 12:11 PM
Not sure you'd like to eat those - from what I understand, their tissues are full of ammonia.
Posted by: Angel Kaida | July 13, 2009 12:13 PM
Also, Humboldt squid are BAD ASS. Just saying.
Posted by: Peter Ashby | July 13, 2009 12:13 PM
Hey! I call foul on PZ for false advertising! I clicked on this expecting to see giant squid thrashing on the beach, instead it was only medium sized Humboldts. I want my money back. Back home in New Zealand we have true giant squid and giant calamari eating Sperm Whales to boot. When we catch a giant squid we dissect it live on the web for the edification of all. We make money off the Japanese and Taiwanese who come and catch the smaller ones. I was once travelling on my motorbike at night and along the top of the hills I could see what seemed to be the lights of a town off to the east where no town should be. Took me a while to realise it was the lights of a squid fleet off the coast. They would be a bit surprised if a Kraaken was attracted . . .
Posted by: Berner | July 13, 2009 12:17 PM
Cthulhu is cool and all but I'd rather pray to Nyarlathotep.
Posted by: Darren Garrison | July 13, 2009 12:22 PM
I was viciously eaked once. It was vicious.
Don't you hate it when you think you've just coined a new word, and google tells you somebody else came up with it first? Like "cephalopocalypse":
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=cephalopocalypse&sa=N&tab=wi&um=1
Posted by: SciencePundit
|
July 13, 2009 12:23 PM
@ThePaleScot
Wow! That article was nothing but a putrid pile of decaying strawmen. I saw an interview with Wright a couple of weeks ago (it might have been on blogingheads.tv) and I was thoroughly unimpressed. But this latest screed of his is a complete joke. Dawkins is a right wing hawk??? On what planet? At least the commenters over there are taking him to task for it. Bleh!
Posted by: donna | July 13, 2009 12:29 PM
This recipe sounded tasty:
http://www.zombiehunters.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=19748&start=0
I've never cooked humbolts but have pounded abalone -- I imagine you could pound out a pretty nice squid steak from these guys.
Posted by: Sarcastro | July 13, 2009 12:35 PM
"There's no such thing as sea monsters. It was probably just a giant squid."
"Tell me something, what's not monstrous about a giant squid?"
Posted by: James F | July 13, 2009 12:35 PM
And so it begins....
Posted by: Naked Bunny with a Whip
|
July 13, 2009 12:45 PM
I'm not going to worry until the squid start washing up on the coastlines of Iowa.
Posted by: Dustin | July 13, 2009 1:07 PM
That whole "New Atheist" BS is really starting to piss me off. Though, coming from HuffPo it shouldn't be surprising they're jumping on the "throw the atheists back in the closet and lock the door" bandwagon.
Posted by: Kevin (NYC) | July 13, 2009 1:08 PM
I heard that it was Obama's fault:
"Well YOU DEMONcRATS are to BLAME for this HELL that has been UNLEASE BY ALMIGHTY JESUS CHRIST GOD IN THE HIGHEST SAVIOR OF ALL THAT IS MIGHTY JESUS. you ELECTed a MUSLIN to lead the FREE WORLD! and now yoU GET WHAT YOU DESERVE!!! A PLAGUE OF SEE MONSTERS on the BEACHES and the eath SHAKING behind your FEAT. IS there ANY question that bECAUSE of the election of OBAMA[?]"
http://wonkette.com/409802/large-squid-wash-up-on-beach-after-small-earthquake-obama-blamed#more-409802
Posted by: Benjamin Geiger | July 13, 2009 1:09 PM
In related news, every man (including Dawkins) is Socrates.
Posted by: Qwerty
|
July 13, 2009 1:12 PM
Naked Bunny, Coastline in Iowa? Isn't that the state where gays can get married under a canopy of corn?
Posted by: Kevin (NYC) | July 13, 2009 1:16 PM
what is the verdict on the eating of Humbolts? I know that they are fished quite a bit off of mexico. must be somebody eating them.
Posted by: Phoenix Woman | July 13, 2009 1:19 PM
Quick O/T: Here's an interesting article on America's science illiteracy --
http://www.salon.com/env/feature/2009/07/13/science_illiteracy/
Posted by: Chris Davis
|
July 13, 2009 1:25 PM
Swim, my minions! SWIM, dammit, you wankers.
Posted by: Naked Bunny with a Whip
|
July 13, 2009 1:29 PM
I blame Aquaman for this.
Posted by: Tully
|
July 13, 2009 1:31 PM
I, for one, welcome our new squid overlords.
Posted by: daveau
|
July 13, 2009 1:33 PM
Fortunately, Gilroy, CA, is the garlic capital of the world. And the Garlic Festival is next week. Smells delicious just driving through town.
Posted by: Quidam
|
July 13, 2009 1:34 PM
Nope. Because of their size they can be a bit tough, but they are as tasty as any other squid as long as they are fresh.
If it smells of ammonia it's gone off and you shouldn't be eating it.
Posted by: Naked Bunny with a Whip
|
July 13, 2009 1:38 PM
@Qwerty #27: Yes, though we don't build palaces out of corn like they do in South Dakota.
Posted by: Jewbacca | July 13, 2009 2:02 PM
Say, what's Paul Krugman been up to? I notice he hasn't posted to his blog yet today. Hmmm... Suspicious.
Posted by: Jewbacca | July 13, 2009 2:15 PM
Wow, that HuffPo piece is an incoherent mess, even by HuffPo standards (and those are pretty bad with the amount of nonsense they peddle). Two quick thoughts:
1. Robert Wright is a stupid git.
Rand certainly hated religion (though not as much as anything to her left). And I seem to recall Marx famously deriding religion as the "opiate of the masses" in describing how it keeps the proletariat down. I rest my case. (Also, Nietzsche. Nothing "new" here.)
My. Head. Asplode.2. Either their "read more" algorithm has a relevance multiplier in the thousands for Hitler, or whoever picks the categories hates atheists with the fire of a thousand suns. There is all of one mention of Hitler in the article, and yet...
Posted by: Brownian, OM
|
July 13, 2009 2:22 PM
Well, if you teach young cephalopods that they evolved from gastropods then you should expect them to act like gastropods.
Posted by: Noadi | July 13, 2009 2:57 PM
Humboldts have been known to attack people fishing for them so I definitely know what they would do. I love these animals but I also have a healthy respect for what they can do.
It's sad to see so many washed up on the beach and if I was there I'd probably be in tears watching it but it does happen periodically. I find it interesting that it happened after an earthquake. The question is was this just a coincidence, a rare fluke occurrence that triggered the die off, or are these mass deaths of humboldts often triggered by events like this?
Posted by: Sili
|
July 13, 2009 3:06 PM
It's all because the gays are getting married!
Admittedly it was a brief clip, but that woman did not look 42 to me.
Posted by: MrFire | July 13, 2009 3:26 PM
Apologies in advance Jewbacca, but this is a long-misinterpreted quote. Here is the slightly longer version:
IMHO, Marx wasn't being so much derisive as he was being reflective, and perhaps a little bit lugubrious.
*Nitpicking hat off.* I liked the rest of your comment!
Posted by: Happy Tentacles
|
July 13, 2009 3:32 PM
That was just the advance guard. The main Cephalopod invasion begins tomorrow.
Posted by: Faid | July 13, 2009 3:34 PM
Can you eat Humboldts?
BTW, this kind of reminded me of the "On the Beach" comic from Cthulhu Tales.
Posted by: Robyn | July 13, 2009 3:41 PM
If it was Humboldt then all your beachgoers are probably militant vegans hippies. (Or so I am told) Which explains why they tossed back the squid.
Posted by: Scott | July 13, 2009 3:42 PM
They have been seen by scuba divers doing night dives off the coast around La Jolla since Friday night (before the earthquake). No attacks yet, but they're have been some inquisitive bumps and pulling.
They can and do attack. Think shark feeding frenzy.
Posted by: Jason Thibeault | July 13, 2009 3:49 PM
Brownian: Well done sir. Well done indeed.
Posted by: Jewbacca | July 13, 2009 3:50 PM
MrFire,
Yeah, you're entirely right. I take it as saying it was a symptom not a cause, something that eased the suffering because it (the suffering) would be unsustainable otherwise. But as you said, it is commonly misunderstood, and has been basically since it was written. The perception of hostility is still there, and AFAICT that's the point (if there is any point beyond "teh new atheists r teh suxx0rz") of that article. Perhaps I should have said "infamously". ;)
Posted by: Phrogge | July 13, 2009 4:00 PM
It's just the Ia! Ia! Sisterhood after a drunken night on the waves.
Posted by: itwasntme | July 13, 2009 4:11 PM
When I was a child living in Manhattan Beach, CA (in the 50's), we had a whole summer where swimming was almost impossible because of jellyfish. Huge jellyfish, up to 3 feet across, and pieces of jellyfish filling the water, covering the tideline. Nothing to do with any earthquake, tho, so sometimes these things happen. I think it could be determined from the type of squid washing up what depth/area they arrived from, and I'd be interested to know that. Now I'll read upstream and see if anybody has answered that question yet.
Posted by: itwasntme | July 13, 2009 4:16 PM
When I was a child living in Manhattan Beach, CA (in the 50's), we had a whole summer where swimming was almost impossible because of jellyfish. Huge jellyfish, up to 3 feet across, and pieces of jellyfish filling the water, covering the tideline. Nothing to do with any earthquake, tho, so sometimes these things happen. I think it could be determined from the type of squid washing up what depth/area they arrived from, and I'd be interested to know that. Now I'll read upstream and see if anybody has answered that question yet.
Posted by: jj | July 13, 2009 4:31 PM
Thanks for the reminder!Nice try! Humboldt squid are in fact not from Humboldt county, but come from much further south (Mexico), where the water is much warmer. Humboldt, and the rest of northern California has very cold waters. In recent years though, Humboldt squid have been migrating north and are seen as a problem to the local fisheries (which are in almost gone). First Humboldt squid sightings in northern California (Almost northern California) was in the Monterrey Bay, which is almost 400 miles south of Humboldt. in the 98 El Nino.
Posted by: 'Tis Himself
|
July 13, 2009 4:34 PM
Here's a song, often considered the Provincial Song of Newfoundland, called The Squid Jigging Ground.
Now if ever you feel inclined to go squiddin',
Leave your white shirts and collars behind in the town.
And if you gets cranky without your silk hanky
You'd better steer clear of the squid-jiggin' ground.
Posted by: MrFire | July 13, 2009 4:42 PM
Jewbacca,
Right you are...I sense that you and I and others are hoping PZ will take a big crap all over that article sometime soon.
Posted by: Susannah | July 13, 2009 5:07 PM
#25:
"you ELECTed a MUSLIN to lead the FREE WORLD"
Complete fabrication!
Posted by: TheLoneIguana
|
July 13, 2009 5:38 PM
#54: You win.
And whoever thinks California is all liberals needs to spend some time in the the central valley. Lots of hate-spewing right-wing talk radio, giant confederate flags on raised 4X4 trucks, and a major city that twice elected mayor an actor whose claim to fame was playing a character named "Bubba."
Posted by: jj | July 13, 2009 5:58 PM
Don't forget Orange County, which includes Saddleback Church and Rick Warren. Another California conservative strong hold...Posted by: SquidBrandon
|
July 13, 2009 6:49 PM
MrFire 53:
I don't know. I think that article does a pretty good job of taking a crap on itself...
Posted by: meh1963 | July 13, 2009 7:06 PM
I hope that this is, as Lily suggests above, a periodic and natural occurance. I do not want cephalopods to become the amphibians of the sea, harbingers of the effects of pollution.
Posted by: Jonsi | July 13, 2009 10:42 PM
I saw these on the beach and while surfing some reef breaks this weekend. There is no way it is associated with the earthquake. A M4.0 event 20 miles offshore is common, maybe happening 1-2 times a year, as there are plenty of long, strike slip faults with restraining bends offshore. That is the entire reason for the Channel Islands, and an earthquake of that size, if strike slip, is not going to produce much energy in the water column. It's almost certainly the result of the water getting warm with a west swell, then cooling, and then getting UNCOMMONLY warm this last weekend. A few washed up and dying on the beach does not necessitate an explanation. I've seen plenty of that in the Sea of Cortez. If they are here, a few are going to wash up. MAYBE there is another reason, but that reason would be more likely to do with water quality, food, and nutrients differing from what they prefer, going out of range because of the warmer water.
As for attacking people, that seems to most commonly occur when they are fished on long lines and filmed at the same time. A humboldt squid is unlikely to see you swimming or surfing and come and attack you, unless there is a boat hauling them out of the water right next to you.
Posted by: Darren Garrison | July 14, 2009 12:19 AM
#49 (and #50)
Check this out:
http://www.pinktentacle.com/2009/07/japan-fears-massive-jellyfish-invasion-this-year/
Posted by: Bruce | July 14, 2009 1:14 AM
Jonsi #59 gives some interesting ideas. The park ranger mentioned interchange between warm and cold waters. More oxygen is soluble in cold water than in warm water. Could these squid deaths be due to squid finding themselves unexpectedly in the wrong sort of water and being unable to deal with it? Any squid biologists follow this blog?
:-)
Posted by: Mr.Man | July 14, 2009 11:36 AM
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090713/sc_livescience/catsdocontrolhumansstudyfinds
I'm sorry guys, but science has just demonstrated that CATS are our supreme overlords.
Is this a preemptive firs strike by the squids? Ooh-rah, cephalopods.
Posted by: pyjamaslug | July 15, 2009 2:25 AM
you may laugh, but take note: there is danger in paradise!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcKQt5hHDXg&fmt=22