Secrets of Jumbo Squid Discovered Via "Crittercam"

One of the giants of the ocean is revealing long-held secrets about its life, thanks to an underwater video camera.

Researchers from Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station are using a "Crittercam" developed by National Geographic Society to follow one member of the carnivorous Humbolt squid species, as it plies its way through the waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean, according to a report published by LiveScience.

The research team attached a quart-sized camera system and sensors to the squid by first affixing the mechanics to a child's swim suit and then slipping the suite over the squid's fins like an expanding sleeve lead research biologist William Gilly explained.

The resulting video footage and echo-sounding data showed that Humboldt squid can jet-propel themselves at speeds comparable to the fastest ocean fish --- upwards of 45 m.p.h.

The findings also demonstrate members of the species hunt in tightly coordinated groups, a behavior ore often associated with fish instead of invertebrates, animals --- including squid --- that don't have backbones, and that smaller squid tend to stay clear of the bigger ones, probably to avoid getting eaten themselves.

The camera showed that a squid rapidly changing the coloring of pigmented skin cells, known as chromatophores, which are triggered by neural impulses. Interestingly, Gilly said, the observed red and white color changes were only initiated when the study squid encountered an individual of its own species. "We don't know exactly what those discussions mean," Gilly said in a video from Stanford.

Humboldt squid are generally thought to live in the Pacific from the tip of South America up to Mexico, although scientists say members of the species have been migrating farther northward in recent years, perhaps because rising ocean temperatures in that region are creating larger low-oxygen zones, like the squid's natural environment.

The public has been spooked for many years by mass beachings of the squid and also stories of the large-sized creature attacking people --- even though the jumbo squid have been shown not to be man-eaters, instead typically feeding on small fish and plankton.