{"version":"1.0","provider_name":"2022 Archive of RENATURED, Marina Zurkow's Research Blog","provider_url":"https:\/\/o-matic.com\/blog-archive-2022","author_name":"Marina","author_url":"https:\/\/o-matic.com\/blog-archive-2022\/blog\/author\/admin\/","title":"The Humboldt Squid","html":"The Humboldt squid has 36,000 teeth in total. Moves fast. Eats dirty. Is big. Gorgeous, graceful, and alien creature.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe Humboldt squid is a voracious predator that will eat anything it can get its tentacles on.\u201d\u00a0 \u2013 livescience.com<\/a>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_110\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"234\" caption=\"photo from smithsonianmag.com\"]\"photo<\/a>[\/caption]\r\n\r\nCreatures of a new mythology. Moving up and down the water columns. Ecosystem parasites. Opportunists. Formidable monsters. Predators. I say monsters, because with climate change the Humboldt squid \"substantially expanded its perennial geographic range in the eastern North Pacific by invading the waters off central California. This sustained range expansion coincides with changes in climate-linked oceanographic conditions and a reduction in competing top predators. It is also coincident with a decline in the abundance of Pacific hake, the most important commercial groundfish species off western North America.\" \u2013 National Academy of Sciences<\/a>\r\n\r\nThe squid are expanding their range vertically, in terms of depth and horizontally in terms of range, and eating away their prey. They are competing for our<\/em> food, having outlasted their competing predators and exhibiting robust resistance to changing conditions.\r\n\r\nMonsters represent a threat to our safety and livelihoods. They are our wily and flexible competitors.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_111\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"345\" caption=\"pair of Dosidicus gigas\"]\"pair<\/a>[\/caption]","type":"rich"}