Sea monsters!

As if the economic situation wasn’t enough, shootouts in Acapulco and the swine flu scare have put a dent into any hope for a quick recovery in the Pacific coastal tourism industry.  Now comes an even scarier proposition… sea monster attacks!

The Royal Norwegian Naval tanker, Brunswick, was attacked by a squid in the 1930s and during World War II, a sailor in a lifeboat was said to have been pulled out and eaten by a squid (that was the survivor’s story, and they stuck to it). There are reliable reports of sperm whales and squid fights, with the whales not always winning. However, the whales were probably fighting the really, really big squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni.

What are appearing now — unusually late in the season (normally they’re only close to shore in the spring), and further north than usual (around San Diego right now) are Diablos Rojas or Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas) have been moving into shallow waters.

They’re predatory, to be sure, but these guys are “only” about one and a half to two meters meters long, and “only” weigh around 50 kilos… it’s not like they’re going to eat too many tourists.

Besides, they make good eatin’ and one is more than enough for a family sized helping of calamar. They tend to run in schools, and are harvested by our local shrimpers during the closed season. Diablos Rojas normally run along the coast in the late Spring. One expected culprit in their sudden rise in numbers and expansion in range may be overfishing of their predators — shark, marlin and whales. Global warming, el Niño and a series of recent small earthquakes off the coast may also have played a role in the unusually late — and unusually large number of sighting — of Diablo Rojas.

Ah well, so far the squid scare has been only around San Diego (itself somewhat unusual, normally being found further south).   And they’re only mollusks… scarier stuff comes out of the sea.