squid balls Squid Run at La Jolla Shores

Groups of squid were mating everywhere we looked, and squid egg casings already obscured the sand bottom. Furthermore, a variety of fishes and other animals including bat rays, thornback rays, sheep crabs and sea lions were feeding on the squid. Talk about a wild scene.

Of course, there were scenes like the one we were witnessing all over Southern California that night, as the La Jolla Submarine Canyon is only one of any number of sites where market squid gather to mate during typical Southern California winters. Also known as common squid, these cephalopods usually inhabit deep water, but they mate and lay their eggs in much shallower surroundings. The mating and egg laying typically occur over sandy bottoms, sometimes at depths as shallow as 30 to 40 feet/9 to 12 m, but more commonly in slightly deeper, cooler water. The event is often referred to as a "run," and during heavy runs, which can last for several weeks or even months, literally millions of squid gather to mate in coastal canyons and along steep sand drop-offs at the offshore Channel Islands.

The instinct to mate among market squid is incredibly strong, and the males appear frantic as they attempt to embrace a female. Market squid are only believed to live for one year, just long enough to reach sexual maturity, mate and die. It is quite common to see three, four or more males all clutching the same female in an undersea orgy.

Squid are capable of swimming forward, backward and sideways with near equal rapidity, jet-propelling themselves with a directable siphon and undulating tail fins as they seek out a mate. When mating, squid often change colors rapidly as they pulsate from creamy white to deep purple to brown and green. The color changes are believed to express excitement and communicate with other squid. Often when a male is successful in his efforts to grab onto a female, his tentacles instantly blush a scarlet warning to deter other males from attempting to woo his mate. In an effort to ensure that he perpetuates his own genetic code, a mating male quickly and adeptly passes a packet of sperm underneath the mantle of the female. Soon afterwards she will use the sperm to fertilize her eggs.
After mating, the females plant a single egg casing in the sand. The whitish 8- to 12-inch-/21- to 31-cm-long egg casing contains approximately 200 eggs. It is estimated that only a few will live long enough to reproduce. While each female plants a single egg casing, the sheer number of egg casings transforms the once-brown bottom into a shag carpet of egg casings. Five to seven days after an egg casing is planted, you can see the bright-red eyes of the unhatched embryonic squid inside. In another week or so the eggs will hatch, and the newborns will instinctively head for deep water. One year later, those that manage to survive will take part in the mating ritual.

Shortly after mating, the captivating color shows slow and cease as the adult squid weaken, taking on a sickly, pallid hue. Their sucker-lined tentacles soon become grossly disfigured, and their bodies show signs of marked deterioration. With their life cycle complete after only a year, death is not far away.

squid balls Squid Run at La Jolla Shores
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Travel & Events Europa (Earth's Cry, Heaven's Smile) Santana	Upload TimePublished on 25 Mar 2008

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