Architeuthis Records and Whaling

[Clem]

Hello,

I'd a question, and wondered what the state of thinking on the subject might be. We know that commerical whaling in the 19th and 20th centuries provided a wealth of knowledge about the biology of big pelagic squids. Has anyone explored the question of whether or not the dramatic episodes of Architeuthis repeatedly stranding by locale - Newfoundland, New Zealand, Norway, to name a few - might be correlated with the dramatic expansion of whaling that was occurring, both locally (where the squid washed up) and globally (along the migration routes of the toothed whales)?



Cheers,
Clem

 

[Steve O'Shea]

We very rarely (I mean VERY RARELY) get Architeuthis washing up on beaches these days, and they have been EXTREMELY rare since 1964 (when we stopped whaling). I've always assumed most 'strandings' to have been the result of stress-induced regurgitation, at least in New Zealand. But it's not that simple, as I am coming to learn ..... there's some neat stuff happening out there!