So Very Close But No Squid

Craig meet Fate…Fate meet Craig…Fate you can now proceed to slap Craig in the face.

In my 2 year reign tenure at MBARI, I have literally spent a total of two months at sea off the central California coast…a day here, a week there. But of course I haven’t seen a giant squid nor did I expect to. Sightings of the elusive deep-sea denizen are rare off the California coast, only a handful in the last 100 or so years. Then yesterday I get news that the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation collected a giant squid floating about 20 miles off the coast of Santa Cruz.

Well isn’t that just freakin’ terrific!

No really I am so happy that they and not I got to both collect and yesterday dissect the beast. I mean what interest do I have in a 25ft long squid.

You can see video by ABC7 here of the dissection.