Tripping the light fantastic

  

During a walk at Dillon Beach on 27 December 2025, we came across several large masses of egg capsules.

Here's a photo in Eric's hand for scale: 

 

 

These are egg capsules of the Opalescent Inshore Squid (Doryteuthis opalescens).  When you look at the capsules up close, if the embryos are far enough along in their development, you can see tiny squid inside.  Look especially for the two large eyes.  Each compartment holds one squid (so an individual egg capsule can hold 50 or more developing embryos):

 

 

 

Development time is dependent on water temperature, but it can take 6-10 weeks for the little squid to hatch out in cooler temperatures. 

 

One of the egg capsules (above) appeared to have mature squid larvae that looked like they'd be ready to hatch soon.  We put the capsule into a large ziploc bag with seawater and what do you know, about an hour later, tiny (~3 mm long) squid larvae had emerged from the capsule and were swimming around.

 

Eric was able to capture some amazing video of the squid larvae and their beautiful chromatophores under a microscope (see below).  [If you can't see the video player in your e-mail, click on the title of this post above to go directly to the NHBH website to watch the video.]  It's fascinating to see the pulsing chromatophores in action.

 

We thought you might enjoy a little light show to ring in the New Year!

 

Best wishes for 2026! 

 

P.S.  For more information about how chromatophores work in squid and octopus, check out this "Hide and seek" video that Eric made in 2021.