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Humboldt Squid Are Still Not Giant Squid

Oh criminy, are we still confused? Didn't we go over this like a zillion times? Wasn't Deep-Sea...

Where's the Pooh Squid?

The LA Times is way more awesome than I ever realized. First, they have this section called "LA...

California Squid Are Doing Just Dandy--This Year

I have been known to admit that I fell in love with cephalopods because they are the closest things...

Squid Counting And Comics

Not a whole lot of squid news this week, although the cephalopod mailing list continues to host...

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Danna StaafRSS Feed of this column.

Cephalopods have been rocking my world since I was in grade school. Now I'm a graduate student at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station, where I study the development and dispersal of Humboldt... Read More »

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Hey, I'm back! I went to a rockin' party and an awesome conference and now I am full of interesting tales. Also, I am full of determination to finish my thesis this year, and an unfortunate byproduct of that resolution is a need to cut down on my blogging. Therefore, as you can see from my mutilated banner, squid-a-day is temporarily squid-a-week, until I finish my degree.

So once a week I will be delivering a concentrated dose of squid! Are you ready for the first? It's extra concentrated, since I had to cover the first twelve days of the new year . . .

Apparently, a committee in Japan is lobbying for a return to the traditional sake bottle.
The squid skins dry in the sun, stuffed with rice or grains to create the bottle shape. Once fully dried, warm sake is poured into the squid bottle to create a distinct squid-infused Sake flavour. Bottles can be used 4 or 5 times before being eaten.

Technically, these probably aren't "skins." The skin of a squid is a thin, delicate covering that wouldn't hold up well to this sort of treatment. My guess is that they're using the whole mantle--the muscular body of the squid, which is usually turned in calamari rings.


Despite spending this holiday season at home, where the sun is shining, the grass is green, and the orange and palm trees sway, I've been metaphorically snowed under. Between wrestling a paper into submission (that was a pun! submission, like to a journal? hah? hee?) and preparing data for a conference presenation, squid blogging has fallen somewhat by the wayside.

But squid news continues relentlessly, never pausing for its chronicler's busy schedule. So, I give you the tentacular highlights that have accumulated over the last few weeks, starting with PW Style's truly large, totally amazing homemade squid presents:


I think this may be the best pop-sci treatment of the jumbo squid invasion that I've seen yet. Go, Christian Science Monitor!

For example, most invasion articles don't take the time to explain the nuanced history of the squid's presence in California, but here we learn:
When scientists dug through historical records, they discovered that the squid's northward advance wasn't entirely unprecedented. There were accounts from the 1930s of the creatures in Monterey Bay. But never in numbers comparable to what scientists observed now – schools many hundreds strong. And no one had ever seen them as far north as Alaska.

For most Americans, holiday season is food season. Much of it, like holiday cookies, chocolate santas, mashed potatoes, buttered rolls, is unarguably delicious. Some of it, like fruitcake, is merely something to endure. You can decide for yourself to which of the two categories these unusual foodie gifts suggested by Fox News belong. Either way, I think the Squid Ink Bread is by far the weirdest:

SQUID BREAD - Not shaped like a squid or made with a squid, but jet black bread

I have a few cephalopod ornaments to hang on the boughs, but nothing like these ninety-nine beautiful hand-sewn octopuses!

Esty has a number of options when it comes to festive cephalopods. This is my favorite: