I, For One, Welcome Our New Squid Overlords - And Here's Why

[hatrack]

EDIT

What if our changes to the ocean are such a boon to cephalopods that we witness a global explosion of tentacles? We might have to shift our menus from tuna salad to octopus salad, from swordfish steaks to squid steaks. Furthermore, as cephalopod populations respond to a mercurial environment with their own wild fluctuations, we might have to accept a variable availability of seafood: sometimes we'll have it, and sometimes we just won't.

Being generalist predators, cephalopods also have the potential to clean out whole swaths of ocean. A proliferation of hungry squid could eat its way through the available prey, leaving little for other predators — or for their own offspring. Mobile and adaptable as they are, the next generation of squid might simply find new hunting grounds to ravage.

So far, so good for squid. But squid are not the only cephalopods, and they have cousins who don't share their superpowers. Pearly nautiluses, last of the shell-dwelling cephalopods, grow slowly and have few babies. Already severely depleted in many places, they have recently gained protection by international treaty in 2016 and consideration for the Endangered Species Act in 2017.

Several species of deep-sea octopuses, which evolved to have the characteristics of slow growth and few offspring, are already listed as endangered. Though not targeted in themselves, these creatures have the misfortune of living in close quarters with delicious neighbors. Fishing nets aimed at scampi shrimp often catch octopuses as well, and any death — accidental or not — is a significant loss. Despite the resilience of squid and their appearance as tentacled aquatic weeds, it's unlikely that they will be totally immune to overfishing. When humans find an animal that we like to eat or look at, we're incredibly good at taking and taking until there aren't any left. What if squid and octopuses were extinguished or drastically reduced by our own short-sightedness? A major source of protein for people, along with every other large marine predator, would disappear.

EDIT

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/Why-are-our-oceans-filling-with-squid-12444647.php

[longship]

1. The humboldt squid is the Cthulhu of the sea.

One has not truly encountered one unless one has been totally consumed. The only hope is to be eaten first, for we will all eventually be eaten.

They're always hungry, apparently.

Possibly the last thing one will see.


Have a nice day, everybody.