As seen in San Francisco Examiner and on Examiner.com

WHALE WATCH LOG -
OUT TO THE GULF OF THE FARALLONS AND BACK

Sunday June 2, 2007
 

Sharon Gray - Photographer and author

"To learn more about Humpback Whale behavior and in hopes of spotting Delta and Dawn, I went on a whale watching expedition out in the Pacific Ocean with the Oceanic Society. I saw six humpback whales, but could not identify whether or not they were Delta and Dawn. Below the photo is a PhotoLog of my whale-watching trip (aboard the Huli Cat)..."

Click to read the two part story ->

Part I

Photos and Video Courtesy of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute ~ Click photos to enlarge

Killer squid are here

Predator expands its range into California
 

"A mysterious sea creature, up to 7 feet long, weighing up to 100 pounds, with thousands of sharp barbs on its arms. It hunts in packs of hundreds, flying through the water at 25 mph, changing color.

With a parrot like beak and strong arms, it attacks and tries to eat nearly anything it sees, including fish, scuba divers, even its own kind.

But it’s not a creature of Hollywood. It’s real. And it’s reached the Monterey Bay. The Humboldt squid, also known as the giant squid or jumbo squid, traditionally has lived in warm waters off South America and Mexico, where fishermen call it “diablo rojo,” or “red devil.”

For reasons that still aren’t entirely clear, large numbers of the scrappy cephalopods have been steadily expanding their range north, first off San Diego and Los Angeles, where hundreds have washed up on beaches in recent years.

Now they appear to have taken up residence in Monterey Bay, according to a study released today by researchers from Stanford University and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) compiled with more than 16 years of underwater video (see video clip above.

Tom Mattusch of El Granada runs recreational fishing trips on his 53-foot charter boat, the Huli Cat, based in Half Moon Bay. “This is like the creature from the black lagoon. They are very strange looking,” he said with a chuckle. “Nobody here has ever caught anything like this. “They fight so much, they are a real bear to pull in,” he added. “I’ve seen big heavy construction workers, after catching two or three, look like they’ve been worked over by a prize fighter...”

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The Return of the 'SAVAGE THINGS'

Local fishermen intrigued by return of Humboldt Squid

On a blustery afternoon at Sam’s Chowder House, Tom Mattusch slowly explained how one goes about cooking a giant squid.
 
“You can bake them. You can fry them. Boil them even, ”he began.
 
And these aren’t the only options. Sautéing the squid with butter and garlic yields a more refined meal. In  fact, Mattusch’s mental cookbook contains a long litany of recipes that include lemon and capers, marinara and old standbys like tartar dressing and cocktail sauce.
 
There’s a reason he’s become such an expert of late. Mattusch, a recreational fisherman from El Granada, says that he has been catching the once-rare-in-these-parts Humboldt squid off the shores of Half Moon Bay lately - hundreds and hundreds of pounds of them. No one is quite sure why the squid have come to the waters off the San Mateo County coast. But the curiosity has caught the imagination of many locals who venture into the sea.
 
“You have to clean the ink off the decks, ”he said last month. “No one remembers anything like this since the1930s.
 
”Ordinary market squid, the stuff of calamari and seafood linguine, usually runs about the length of a fisherman’s hand. They dart about in far-off parts where ordinary people don’t usually find themselves, and even if they did, chances are they would avoid getting spotted anyway.

But you wouldn’t miss a Humboldt squid, says Mattusch. It is the size of a grown man when it lurches on board. Its tentacles bear barbed suckers with which it grasps prey before dragging it toward a mouth containing a large, sharp beak that is the size of a parrot’s snout.

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They came from beneath the sea Just like in 1930:
Giant squid invade Bay Area by the millions

They came from beneath the sea Just like in 1930: Giant squid invade Bay Area by the millions Tom Stienstra Sunday, February 27, 2005 For years as a boy, I'd find myself mesmerized by a page in my favorite wildlife book -- you may remember this yourself -- a drawing of a giant squid wrapping its tentacles around a sperm whale... 

This childhood memory has taken on a shocking present-day twist with the arrival of another species of giant squid, the Humboldt squid, also called the "jumbo squid," offshore of the Bay Area and along much of the Pacific Coast. They average 15 to 60 pounds and generally measure up to six feet long, but there is a historical record of one that reached 700 pounds. They have not been seen in significant numbers on the Pacific Coast since 1930.   

Yet here they are, these giant squid, not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of them. They have roared in from the depths across the Pacific to within 20 miles of Half Moon Bay and Bodega Bay. Many others have been documented near northern Baja, San Diego and even Oregon and Washington. . .

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Outside: Monster Surfers

Mavericks 2005 has become an event at sea.

While the sun rises like a fried egg over the green, lumpy mountains to the east, a crew of media prepare for a full day at sea. The writers and photogaphers are going out to cover this year’s Mavericks’ Surf Contest on the Huli Cat, a 53-foot long sportfishing boat docked in Half Moon Bay’s harbor. On the deck, San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Paul McHugh seems to be excited about spending eight hours adrift on the boat during crushing swells. “I can’t wait to see them write on the canvas,” he says. “It should be some great art.”

Outside of the door of the men’s bathroom, a couple of journalists are nervous about today’s journey. They swap remedies for seasickness as the boat’s captain instructs everyone to sign a manifest resting on a desk inside the cabin. One of them talks about how a good many of the journalists covering the event a year before spent the whole day puking over the side of a boat into the rushing water. As the Huli Cat pulls out of the harbor, a photographer from a San Mateo paper confides to her colleague that she will probably be vomiting in a short while. On the way out to the monstrous surf break, a buoy marking the channel rings like a bell signaling the beginning of a boxing match. . .

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