The etiquette of squid-eating

Tantalizing news: somewhere out there in the wide, wide world is a video of a pilot whale eating a large squid.

"We looked hard and saw a tentacle of a squid hanging from its mouth and there were other pieces of squid stuck to the whale's body. It made a number of brusque movements on its side in the water to free the tentacle to eat it — and there we were filming and photographing it all."

If you follow TONMO you already know it's probably not a giant squid, as the article breathlessly reports, but it's still going to be interesting because whales that feed on squid do have a problem: the tentacles are clingy and in many of the large species are equipped with sharp hooks — and they writhe and grip even when the animal is dead. How whales manage a struggling meal is going to be something of interest.

Arrr, I nail a virtual doubloon to the mast of the good ship Pharyngula—first matey to spot the whale and his prey gets it.

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It's pretty straight forward, isn't it? Don't drop any of the rings on your shirt. Choose a nice Sangiovese to accompany it. And preferably at a table that overlooks the sea.

;-)

"Aye, my hearties all round; it was Moby Dick that dismasted me.... He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it...."

That, and he eats squid.

By Eveningsun (not verified) on 22 Sep 2007 #permalink

Down with vertabrate chauvinism: Octopus eats shark.

My two-year-old grandnephew's favorite video.

By John Emerson (not verified) on 22 Sep 2007 #permalink

>and they writhe and grip even when the animal is dead.

Though I hear that breading them and deep frying them solves this problem.