Just back from the coral reefs of the West Indies, still feeling the pleasure of it swashing around… It was delightful, especially drifting in the warm water, my happy place, catching up with some favorite reef creatures and seeing what they were up to.
Reef squid are not uncommon in these reefs but they are as mysterious a creature as I’ve ever come across, like all cephalopods. There’s a mind inside that diaphanous colorful body that’s as interested in me as I am of them — an alien intelligence I can only guess at.
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Usually they cruise the lighted parts of the reef in groups of 5-10, most often in a line which shifts and turns as a unit. They stay a few feet below the surface to avoid getting snatched up by birds like boobies and frigatebirds, but prefer fairly shallow water where their phenomenal eyesight can be used to find and catch their prey.
Once two of them at the end of this line got into a scuffle, chasing each other and changing colors, which is one way squid communicate with each other.
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One time we we were drifting around in fairly shallow water near the end of a dive and crossed paths with a pair of squid on their own. What were they doing? Possibly they were a male and female, separating themselves from the rest of the group before mating. If so, these are swan song days for them, since reef squid die after fertilized eggs are stashed in a protected crevice of the reef. (animaldiversity.org/...).
These squid were cruising along slowly midwater, as we were. They were not afraid of us at all. In fact they both approached and got good looks at us. Even when I swam over one it was chill.
We communed.
The shifting colors are saying something but I don’t speak squiddish, unfortunately. Their communication is pretty sophisticated from what I read. For example, a squid can communicate one thing to one squid on its right while its color patterns say something else to a different squid on its left. (www.thecephalopodpage.org/...)
These squid were pretty relaxed and leisurely. Showed no signs of alarm, like shifting into white, or generating eyespots, or squirting ink.
So — ripply. What’s with that? Hard to show in a still photo. This short video clip of a portion of that last encounter will show you what I mean.
Watch how reef squid move.
(Note: to get good resolution and detail in the video, click on the settings wheel, lower right corner, and pick HD)
Watching the reef squid, so graceful, subtly expressive, and quietly powerful — it’s impossible not to feel bumblingly humble. Inside the ocean is a good place to get some perspective about our human importance. I like that.
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