next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects
Hi Jim Found some at the weir at Carr's Brook on the 25th of June, 5 Islands Park (by the Old wife) 7th of July and Burntcoat Head on the 10th of July. Nothing like the masses laid in 1979 and 1980, but still impressive "egg mops". Some small squid in some of teh tide pools, but nothing over about 15 cm mantle lengths. Andrew >>> "James W. Wolford" <jimwolford@eastlink.ca> 07/12/12 10:05 PM >>> JULY 12, 2012 - Yesterday Roy Bishop sent me two photos of a huge mass of eggs (egg-mops) from oodles of female Peale's or Shortfin Squids, Loligo pealei (now named Longfin Inshore Squid (Doryteuthis pealeii)(according to a Wikipedia search of "Loligo") on Evangeline Beach at high-tide line not far from his cottage, which is east of the viewing platform and new stairs. Thus today in early afternoon (tide low) I descended the new public stairs (very nice and sturdy and should last for many years) to the upper beach and walked eastward, toward Boot Island. In a very short time I began discovering lots of flattened thick "pancakes" of sediment-encrusted batches of "sea-mops" (good description) of the squid eggs. Batches were of variable sizes, and eventually, just past Roy's stairs and cottage, found a large batch among some rocks, quite possibly some of the big batch photographed by Roy yesterday. It looked to my eye like the various batches of eggs represented different stages of development, and some that Roy noticed yesterday were clearly close to hatching, since they showed the paired dark eyes. I very fondly recall, back in my teaching days, finding some Peale's Squid eggs that were just hatching, and the little hatchlings were incredibly cute and well-developed, with the eyes, two tentacles or arms, pigment cells that were big and coloured and actively condensing and expanding, functional fins on the mantle, and jet- propulsion mechanisms intact, so that the squidlets were moving in the water sort-of like "water fleas" (Daphnia, Cladocerans, crustaceans). Such were my nostalgic memories, which may not be truly realistic, since it was decades ago that I last observed this, with eggs probably from Kingsport? I'm pretty sure I recall somebody finding these eggs at Scots' Bay too? I got out Merritt Gibson's book, "Seashores of the Maritimes" (2003, Nimbus Publishing), and he wrote of the mops of eggs: "...If collected, they will continue to grow in chilled and fresh seawater. Examine several clusters with a hand lens. The cells divide quickly and, in about 3 days, completely overgrow the yolk. Eyes appear when the embryos are about 3.5 days old, arms at about 5.5 days, and the mantle cylinder at 6.5 days. Young larvae pulsate, the older ones spin around within the egg capsules, the heart starts beating, and the red and yellow spots appear at about the same time as do the fins. The squid hatches at day 20 in water at 16 to 18 degrees C...." Merritt did a lab study of development rates at different temperatures decades ago, and somewhere in my files I still have that manuscript (I think). Back on June 15, 2012, Gerry Cudmore photographed a much smaller quantity of sea-mops of egg-fingers of Peale's Squids further north between Delhaven and Blomidon on the Minas Basin beach. Peale's Squid or the Long-finned Squid is a relatively warm-water squid, existing as adults mainly south of Cape Cod, I think, although the Wikipedia has them as far north as Newfoundland (?). The squids on the Squid-Jigging Ground of Newfoundland are Boreal Squids, Illex illecebrosus, alias Short-finned or Shortfin Squids. For people who inquire off the list, I can provide Roy Bishop's photographs of the egg-clusters at Evangeline Beach yesterday. Cheers from Jim in Wolfville.
next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects