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Project Noah Nature School
Doryteuthis opalescens
These are egg sacs of the Opalescent squid. Female squid place eggs in the capsules and attach them to a substrate with a sticky substance. The capsules where about 2 in. long (5.08 cm). The egg capsules are essentially layers of protein and in these layers bacteria forms. The bacteria is an important component of the capsules because it deters fish and other sea creatures from eating them.
Spotted washed ashore near Tongue Point.
The species lives in the eastern Pacific Ocean from Mexico's Baja California peninsula to Alaska, United States, and as an inshore squid it can be found with a range of 200 miles (320 km) off the coast.
Spotted on Apr 20, 2019
Submitted on Apr 24, 2019
4 Comments
Thank you Mark, Neil and Sergio. It's amazing how bacteria often plays such crucial roles in the lives of larger organisms and yet rarely gets any credit. Finally science (albeit rather slowly) is turning that around. I think I need to get a microscope!
Very nice spotting and info. Congrats.
That is amazing! Excellent spotting and info, Brian.
Fascinating about the bacteria.