So there we were, out in Finlayson Arm, near Brentwood Bay with not enough sun screen and a lack of water (note to self – read the Victoria Kayak FAQ). Anyway, we pulled up on shore to take a break and do some beachcombing when we spotted this…
A little research revealed that these are squid eggs. Specifically the eggs of the opalescent inshore squid, or Doryteuthis opalescens if you still speak latin. The opalescent squid is a small squid that ranges from Baja California to Alaska.
Here the female squid has encapsulate hundreds of eggs in a sheath and then secured the sheath to the ocean floor with a sticky substance that anchors the eggs in place. The eggs will take about 3-8 weeks to hatch depending on water temperature.
After hatching, the 3mm long hatchlings emerge and quickly learn to swim and hunt for plankton. In about 2 months they will grow to about 15mm and begin to hunt in shoals with their tentacles looking for smaller prey such as fish, crabs and shrimp, mollusks, and other juvenile squid. Sometime between 4-8 months they will have grown to about 28cm overall and be capable of reproduction.
Their total lifespan is about 9 months….assuming they don’t get eaten along the way. Doryteuthis opalescens itself is an important food source for many predators like larger fish (salmon), sharks, marine mammals (seals), sea birds (cormorants), and also humans.
Here is some cool video from Damian Davalos of an opalescent squid. If you watch very closely in the first 35 seconds of footage, you can see the female has an egg sack in her arms and is laying eggs into it.
