Squid at Rapid Bay Jetty

David Muirhead posted these squid photos at Rapid Bay jetty on iNaturalist recently, commenting “this was a great MLSSA dive”.

(All photos taken by David Muirhead)

The dive was held on 5^th December 2015. It wasn’t a great dive for me, but that’s another story. I can only say that my dive time was less than an hour, my dive buddies were disappointing (uncooperative?) and I didn’t have time to enjoy myself. (My report on the dive can be found at Rapid Bay Dive 5/12/15 – Marine Life Society of South Australia Inc. (mlssa.org.au).)

It’s a pity because it was a sunny 40C day, the sea was flat calm and the visibility was excellent.  Getting back to David’s version of events that day: –

(Taken by David Muirhead)

Speaking about his Southern Calamari squid, Sepioteuthis australis, photos, David commented, “Reminds me yet again how important our society’s educational role is. In this case the compelling case for further reduction in bag limits recreationally and/or professional quotas, throughout SA and especially here in Gulf St Vincent.

“A handy if simplistic rationale, still widely accepted in our community deriving from our fisheries regulatory authorities (science based, or so it seemed to many of us at the time) only a few decades ago went something like this:

“Squid are quite low down the marine food chain, live short lives, have good recruitment ability, plenty of habitat, have become accepted as tasty and nutritious cuisine more than bait, are easily caught and so on. So human extraction of very large numbers of calamari will have minimal impact on marine ecosystems. Pretty much a free-for-all, with generous boat limits and quotas.

“Now I think we understand how naive that was. So many other critters include squid in their diets, and squid are a major component of some very anthropophilic critters e.g. dolphins and seals.

Also many of the bony and cartilaginous fish we know are in decline eat squid, so go figure.”

(Thanks for these details, David)

View from new jetty downwards towards old jetty on walk back to car park area

(Taken by David Muirhead)