Jumbo Flying Squid Washing Up On San Diego Beaches - El Nino May Be To Blame

TheSanDiegoChannel ^ | July 25, 2002

[Shermy]

SAN DIEGO -- Hundreds of squid are washing up on La Jolla Coves beaches as a result of warm El Nino weather patterns, 10News reported.

Video - Calamari Anyone?

The squid may be getting stuck in a warm water current and pushed into San Diego waters 10News reported. The beachings are creating a big problem for swimmers and a big stink for residents.

The area is popular with divers and snorkelers, but officials are concerned that the squids' ink may be unhealthy.

The jumbo flying squid, known by their scientific name Dosidicus gigas, normally nestle in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Their natural habitat ranges from Oregon to Peru.

The beach strandings puzzle Annette Henry, a state marine biologist.

"I don't know why they are dying," she said. "They seem to be perfectly healthy squid."

Scientists noticed another strange stranding in May when tiny red crabs that looked like miniature lobsters covered the Ocean Beach area.

[Shermy]

Ping.

[Poohbah]

I thought Hillary went in for flying monkeys.

Why'd she Arkanicide her flying squid?

[dead]

It's the driving squid I worry about.

[tracer]

It's a sad commentary on our society that these magnificant squids have to wash up on the beach because nobody will rent them rooms.....

[Jagdgewehr]

I wonder what effect this will have on the skipjack and yellow fin bite? I heard the albacore bite is wide open now.

[dighton]

Calamari bump.

John, there's still a bug that kills headline characters with a tilde: Niño. I believe umlauted characters -- Göring, Müller -- are also killed in headlines, as well as curly quotes and apostrophes.

[Shermy]

Here's a video from local channel four, with fisherman catching hundreds, and a dissection too!

Squid

[steveo]

officials are concerned that the squids' ink may be unhealthy.

And the rotting flesh isn't unhealthy?

"Do you smell it? It's the smell, the smelly smell of something that smells... smelly" -Mr. Krabs

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Giant Flying Squid

The airlines tried to charge them for two tickets and they couldn't afford it.

This is proof that getting through airport security takes too long.

[Shermy]

I'm worried about "the tiny red crabs that looked like miniature lobsters."

What if they get in cotact with some nuclear waste...

[Shermy]

[Grampa Dave]

You guys furnish the beer and have the cooking oil hot, and I will fly down with our secret calamari recipe.

Calamari, global warming, el nino, cold beer and some fellow conservatives on the beach to talk with. What more could a guy ask for?

Hold my beer while I fillet, slice and dice, roll those so to be Calamari chunks in my secret recipe. Then we toss them into the hot cooking oil for a few seconds.

[ASA Vet]

[Catspaw]

I was wondering where Sidney Blumethal had been hiding. Thanks for solving that mystery.

[Hugin]

Don't forget the cocktail sauce.

1 cup Ketchup
I Tsp Worchestershire Sauce
2 Heaping tbsp horseradish
1 tbsp Louisiana Hot sauce
I tsp black pepper

[Grampa Dave]

Sounds great.

If you can find this horse radish in your grocery's cooler, buy it. It doesn't have oils, eggs, sugar and other stuff. It is just basic horse radish.

Tulelake Country Fresh old Fashioned Horseradish packed buy Tulelake Horseradish Company and marketed by GI Mezzetta company.

One of my sons was a chef before he developed bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome. He directed us to this real horse radish.

[Grampa Dave]

Holly Sushi!

What the hell was that hunk of scales and fins?

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Same odor as if you opened Rosie O'Donuts undergarment dresser drawer

[pabianice]

Are they clutching butterfly ballots in their tentacles? Clearly some disenfranchised voters for Gore...

[Tennessee_Bob]

Rosey's tapeworm??

[weegee]

Didn't Godzilla fight a Giant Flying Squid in "Godzilla 2000"?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

They are catching them off Newport Harbor!

Super, spurting squid
Jumbo mollusks swarm O.C. waters, soak fishermen.

July 25, 2002

By GARY ROBBINS
The Orange County Register

	CHRIS BATTS, 13, of Long Beach holds up a jumbo squid Wednesday at the Balboa Pavilion. He and others caught some 37,000 squid in less than a week. Source: Mark Rightmire/The Register

Kane Curran got hit in the kisser Wednesday by a creature whose name sounds like a finger food.

That's right, the ever tasty, always feisty and rarely seen jumbo squid have invaded Orange County coastal waters.

A 20-inch-long squid squirted Curran in the face with inky seawater as the 14-year-old Costa Mesa youth reeled the mollusk aboard the sport-fishing boat Freelance off Newport Harbor.

"It was really kind of fun," said Curran, one of hundreds of fishermen who has jammed on to charter boats since Saturday to participate in a floating free-for-all.

Jumbo squid ingest water into a body cavity, then shoot it out to propel themselves or fend off predators. Namely, fisherman bent on landing some calamari. Many anglers wear raincoats or trash bags in a usually fruitless attempt to stay dry.

"It's been a battle zone on deck, there's so much squirting going on," said Chris Gobel, skipper of Freelance.

Thien Nguyen of Fountain Valley was among the fisherman wrangling squid Wednesday.

"Reeling a squid in is like pulling a 5-gallon bucket of water out of the ocean," Nguyen said.

The strain is apparently worth the gain. At least 37,000 jumbo squid have been caught in the past six days.

It's been four years since jumbo squid have been caught in large numbers locally. An El Niño was developing at the time. Some people attributed the invasion to the warm water caused by El Niño, which might have been wrong.

"There's no El Niño now. Southern California waters have been colder than usual," said Bill Patzert, an oceanographer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. "That's led to greater productivity in the ocean - more plankton, more squid. It's like the ecosystem is on steroids."

[cannonball]

OK, I just can't resist. The title "Jumbo Flying Squid" lead me to believe this thread was about a large Naval aviator.

[weegee]

Moose and Flying Squid:

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the news update on Squiggely Squids.

I'm sending this paragraph to a friend who still has one foot in the enviral door. He swears that due to global warming, we are in phase 1 of an el nino!

There's no El Niño now. Southern California waters have been colder than usual," said Bill Patzert, an oceanographer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. "That's led to greater productivity in the ocean - more plankton, more squid. It's like the ecosystem is on steroids."

[MamaTexan]

What the hell was that hunk of scales and fins?

To heck with the fins,
who are the hunks??? :)

[Grampa Dave]

I believe those were the chosen few/ones in ASA's Laos group venture.

Ask him!

ASA and NSG guys were the hunks back then! :)

[RonDog]

The jumbo flying squid, known by their scientific name Dosidicus gigas...

Giga-ping!

[Thinkin' Gal]

D*mn cephalopods.

[varon]

"Do you smell it? It's the smell, the smelly smell of something that smells... smelly"

Must be sushi ;-)

[Sabertooth]

What the hell was that hunk of scales and fins?

Looks like an oarfish. They're the source of a lot of sea serpent sightings.

They're known to swim with their heads out of the water on occasion, and big ones can get to 50 feet or more. It's the world's longest osteobranch, or true, bony fish.

[Sabertooth]

More on oarfish...

The scientific name is Regalecus glesne. The first oarfish found was in 1771 when a Danish man found one lying along the shore. Some people think that the tales of sea serpents were really oarfish.

The oarfish swims with its dorsal fin, not its entire body. We know this because one diver has actually seen the oarfish alive! Most oarfish are seen dead because they live so deep in the ocean and they only come to the surface when they are sick or injured or when there is seismic activity on the ocean floor. Like volcanoes. The oarfish floats to the top and the pressure is so strong that the oarfish cannot swim back down, so it dies.

The oarfish is found worldwide, in both tropical and warm climates. It lives between 700 and 3000 feet deep in the ocean. It can survive with only half of its body left! It eats shrimp off the ocean floor and scientists say it is harmless.

In 1996 Navy Seals found a 25-foot oarfish in California and a Colorado man, snorkeling in Baja, Mexico, ran in to an 18-foot oarfish!

Photos of Oarfish Coming Ashore in the Sea of Cortez

Underwater pic of Oarfish propulsion by means of an undulating dorsal fin

[Shermy]

Great post Sabertooth.

[ASA Vet]

Mama & Grampa, This photo is being sold in the north of Thailand.
The Thai believe there are real "Naga" and that this photo was proof.
The caption states it was caught by US Army guys at our base in Laos on the Mekong River in 1973.
The Thai claim that all of the "soldiers" who touched the sacred Naga have died,
& the US military plane taking it to the US also crashed.

I have one of the large prints and scanned it in two jpg's side by side.

There are several tip offs to the BS in the caption.
Those "Army" soldiers weren't in Laos in 1973.
If we did have troops at the Mekong River,
they would have put a base on the Thai side not the enemy side.
Brown t-shirts weren't issued yet in 1973.
Things to look for in the photo.
That is a secure military base.
There is a guy in the background wearing a white Navy type cap.
The obvious physical condition of those young guys indicates Spec Ops of some sort.
Duh, US Navy seals.

Futher investigation turned up the original source, which was a photo in an official US Navy publication.
See this link, and follow the link to the real story.
Never mind the Thai link, it doesn't work anymore,
I'll have to fix that.

Click here

[ASA Vet]

Grampa,
As you know, the only comment on my SEA adventure will remain, "no comment."

Unless you want to talk about Singha. ;-)

[ASA Vet]

The photo I posted at #14 was the Oar Fish found by our Seals in California in 96.
The issue date of the Navy Publication "All Hands" was April 97.

I'm under the strict orders of Mrs ASA Vet to not tell
our Thai & Lao friends that the photo they display
in their homes of the "Naga Queen" is a fake.

[weegee]

A 50 foot squid was caught/washed ashore this week. I could search for the article if there is interest...

[Grampa Dave]

You gentlemen might be interested in this picture posted by ASA Vet, (Link to ASA Vet's Fishy Picture)

The replies/comments related to this photo are funny and might be of some interest to the three of you.

No Comment to you ASA Vet!

[Grampa Dave]

Great photos and thanks for the input.

A few years ago my son was fly fishing off the coast of Baja. He had a heavy duty saltwater fly rod and a new Tibor heavy duty reel. They had been hooking and landing some big Dorado. He had released a couple of nice Marlin.

He had a strike and never saw what hit. The fish was about 2/3's into his backing before he knew it. He got the rod into his belt, sat down and really stuck the rod hard on a parallel pump to try and bring the fish up and stop his run.

He never saw the fish, it burnt up the brake pads on his new Tibor reel, and broke off about 8-10 inches on his heavy duty fly rod. The fish broke off a 50# test bimini tippet.

He, his Mexican guide and his buddies on the boat were stunned. They still don't know what the fish was.

I wonder if this creature was it?

[harpseal]

Thanks

[ASA Vet]

They still don't know what the fish was

The excuse used here in the Great Lakes when a Chinook breaks tackle:
"Had to be that Russian Sub we've heard snuck though the locks."

[Grampa Dave]

After a few times after my Sage 8 weight 9.5' steelhead rod became an eight footer in the Chetco River, the Rogue, and the Sacramento River, I stopped fishing when/where the King Salmon might be.

However, I have brand new Sage 10 weight 15'1" Euro Spey Rod just for salmon this season. I just put on the new Loop 4 reel and the Rio 9/10 Accelerator Interchangeble tip line yesterday. It is rigged to go do battle with the Kings this summer and fall.

So it and I are headed up to the American River above Sacramento for a little practice casting as soon as I log off of here.

My son, the better fly fisher, said he knows what will happen if I dare to cast my new Sage 7 weight 14'1" Euro Spey steelhead rod for a few practice casts. That will be when the largest King of the season decides to chop down on my little size 12 Fox Caddis Pupah. Then, I will have a 11 or 12 foot 7 weight rod that isn't all that new. Oh course he has no room to talk. His Sage 8 weight like mine had so many broken tips, he decided to make it a 9' rod instead of a 9.5' rod.

So, I'm only putting a 6# tippet on the leader with that rod. Even a 6# tippet before you break it off with a salmon as big as your leg jumping upstream with your fly in its mouth can be a little scary.

Its tough to blame a submarine for a busted rod when the water in the river is only 10' deep.

[ASA Vet]

Its tough to blame a submarine for a busted rod
when the water in the river is only 10' deep.

Not much harder than to believe the Russian "Stealth"
Sub won't show up on the graphing sonar display.

[Grampa Dave]

No comment!

That's like the Russian Stealth Tank!

[gitmo]

It's the driving squid I worry about.

Don't forget the flying cows.

[ASA Vet]

That's like the Russian Stealth Tank!

Hey Dave, they've finally declassified the photos of that stealth Russkie Stealth Tank.

Here's one I obtained from a "source."

Like it?

[Grampa Dave]

Great picture from a good source!