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.

 

Summer treats

  

A Black-footed Albatross (Phoebastria nigripes) approaching a large piece of squid just below the surface.

Then a second individual expressed interest, too:

 

 

When a third came along, things started to get a little fussy:

 

 

 

P.S.  And because we're thinking about albatross and food, here's a fun picture of the pie that was waiting for me when I returned home from the boat trip.  Hard to beat a blackberry-peach pie with an albatross design!  Nicely done, Eric!  :)

 

 

Captivating capsules

  

We came across several squid egg capsules washed up on the beach yesterday (3 October 2020).

These elongate gelatinous capsules contain lots of developing embryos (somewhere between ~50-300, depending on the capsule), each within their own compartment.  It's somewhat similar to a beehive, so if you look carefully at the photo above, you can see that the capsule contains many roughly hexagonal-shaped areas and each one of those has a tiny squid embryo.  (The squid larvae are ~3 mm when they hatch.)

Here's a closer view:

 

 

Above you can see several embryos, each with two bright red eye spots, a relatively short body section behind the eyes, and a drawn out teardrop-shaped yolk.

When you zoom in even further, you'll notice small chromatophores (pigment spots) on the mantle/main body section!

 

 

The time it takes for the embryos to develop is dependent on water temperature.  In our area it might take ~45-75 days (faster development in warmer water) before the tiny squid larvae are ready to hatch and swim away from the capsule.

P.S.  If you'd like to see squid embryo chromatophores in action, I posted a short video clip back in 2014 — scroll down to the bottom of the post called "Be dazzled!" on 8 October 2014.

Be dazzled!

 

Many of you will remember what this is.  After a big swell in late September, squid egg capsules started washing ashore on the outer coast.

I posted a picture similar to this last winter and shared some information about the capsules — see "Dislodged from the deep" on 15 January 2014.

Then I posted pictures of newly hatched squid paralarvae and their beautiful chromatophores — see "Something about cephalopods" on 16 January 2014.

Now you get to see something even better — a video of these wonderful chromatophores in action!  Although the still photos are attractive, it's much more informative to see how fast the chromatophores can change.

Enjoy and be dazzled!

 

Squid chromatophores from Jackie Sones on Vimeo.

 

Something about cephalopods

I was right — the squid were ready to hatch!  I kept the capsules overnight and this morning when I checked on them I noticed a couple of tiny squid jetting around in the bowl!

 

If you look closely, you can see suckers on their tentacles, and small swimming fins on the other (dorsal) end.  

Below is another picture that shows the swimming fins.  The fins extend out to either side of the mantle (at the top of the photo).

Those of you who have been following this blog know how much I love chromatophores.  (For more about them, see the "Living Paint" post from 2 February 2013).  

So here's a photo highlighting the chromatophores in this squid paralarva.  This is the same individual as in the photo above.  But notice how large the chromatophores are now!  You can go back and forth between the photos and trace individual spots to see how much they've changed between photos.

 

I can't resist sharing one more picture — I don't know what it is, but there's just something about cephalopods that pulls me in.  They're beautiful, they're fascinating — I could watch them all day!

 

Dislodged from the deep

Last Sunday's big waves washed up some of these, and they're still coming ashore.  Do you recognize this object?

 

I'll zoom in on one end, so you can see that there are lots of smaller objects embedded within the larger, cylindrical piece:

 

I found several of them on Salmon Creek Beach, so I brought a couple in for a look under the microscope.  Although it was difficult to photograph the embedded objects through the gelatinous outer layer, here's a pretty good image:

 

These are squid eggs in various stages of development.  In the first pictures, the embryos are very young and difficult to identify as squid (they're predominantly yolk).  But in the second cluster I looked at, the embryos appear almost ready to hatch.  I could even see their fins undulating!

Here's one more photo with the light showing the emerald green eyes and the chromatophores on the tentacles:

 

 

Adult squid deposit clusters of these long cylindrical egg capsules on sandy bottoms offshore (generally between 60-240 feet deep).  The young hatch after 3-5 weeks (depending on water temperatures).

In November 2012, I photographed some earlier stage squid embryos and a hatchling.  To compare today's photos with those, click here. 

Penmanship

Hundreds of these were washing up on Salmon Creek Beach today:

 

Below is another view, this time on the open sand, and flipped over:

 

Are you familiar with these objects?  They're from a marine invertebrate, but their common name is linked to a completely different animal.  The next two images offer a bit of a hint:

 

Here the mystery object is compared to a bird feather.  As you'll recall, in the past some bird feathers were used as writing implements, or quill pens.  The similar shape of the mystery object to a bird feather led someone to give the mystery object a matching name.  Do you have a guess yet?  

The photo below the next one will give it away, so I'll reveal another clue now.  The object is an internal structure from a swimming mollusc with eight arms and two long tentacles.

 

And the mystery object is from a...

 

These are squid pens.  Instead of shells, squid have these long, narrow, chitinous structures inside their mantles.  The pens offer support and serve as a site for muscle attachment.  [If you're curious, the formal name for a squid pen is a gladius.]

I'm not sure why so many squid pens are washing up on the beach right now.  Are the squid being eaten by something?  (Lots of animals like to eat squid.)  Are they laying eggs offshore and then dying?  It was breezy yesterday, so the wind and waves may have driven the pens onto the beach.

 

Pigments and pens

 

I was excited to find quite a few squid egg capsules washed ashore on Bodega Head this afternoon.  Although it's not a good situation for the squid (they need to stay submerged to survive), it was an opportunity to look for tiny developing squid inside the egg capsules.   

The photo above shows a late stage squid embryo.  Its external yolk sac (the teardrop-shaped structure above the eyes) is relatively small.  The embryo also has functioning chromatophores — the red, yellow, and brown spots scattered across the head and mantle.  (The mantle is the hood-like structure used in jet propulsion.)

There were squid embryos in various stages, some more developed than others.  Compare the next two images and guess which is younger.  Hint: the younger embryos have larger yolk sacs.

 

 

Answer: The first photograph shows younger embryos. 

As I was searching the egg capsules, a newly hatched squid larva (formally called a paralarva at this stage) swam by!  It was very small (only a few millimeters long) and very active.  I didn't have much time, but here are a couple of shots.

 

Note the arms (with tiny suckers!) in front of the eyes.

 

Squid chromatophores expand and contract via muscles stimulated by nerve signals sent from the brain. Seeing the chromatophores pulsing reminded me of a video circulated this past summer.  

The clip shows squid chromatophores responding to music being played on an iPod (the iPod was connected to squid skin with an electrode).  Its pretty amazing — check out "Insane in the Chromatophores"! 

Along with the egg capsules, there were also several squid pens on the beach (although slightly damaged, see a scan of one below).  Squid pens are basically internal shells (squids are molluscs like snails and clams).  They're long and slender, often transparent, flexible (made of chitin), and sometimes described as feather-shaped.  The pen supports the squid's mantle and serves as a muscle attachment site.

 

If you're interested in looking for squid eggs, try searching the wrack line at Doran Beach or Dillon Beach.

P.S.  I'm not 100% certain of the species of squid illustrated here, but it might be a Market Squid (Doryteuthis (formerly Loligo) opalescens).