West Palm Beach Carcass

chipster

Hatchling
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A diver in West Palm Beach took this photo of what appears to be a squid carcass on August 30, 2004. The remoras are between 60 and 90 cm long. Anyone? I am searching for more info...
 

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Clem;78590 said:
Those resting remoras look like they've oriented themselves in the direction of the current. Current pushing into the tube might puff it out some, yes?:hmm:

Very good point.
 
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Last 2 photos

Ok, that's all I have. Hope they help. I think one had the brightness adjusted, so the color is off a bit, OOPS! (no other photoshop was conducted--for you cynics!)
 

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:shock:

Great shots, Chipster; thanks for posting them despite the uploading difficulties.

Interesting wound patterns on that squid. What might have caused that cluster of parallel, shallow wounds? Almost looks like a propeller strike.

Cheers,
Clem
 
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Wow. Very cool. Not for the squid, but, you know... :roll:

Propeller-strike sounds like a good guess for those gashes - does it leave similar marks on other boat-struck animals? Anyone know? If this it Archi, it would have to have been dead or moribund first, but it could be something else big that's found more shallow...
 
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If it was a propeller strike, wouldn't the boat captain notice that they'd just gashed a huge animal? Like if it stalled the boat or something. If weeds can stall a boat, I think a squid could. Maybe the gashes aren't the cause of death... :twocents:

Joey
 
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jc45;78771 said:
If it was a propeller strike, wouldn't the boat captain notice that they'd just gashed a huge animal? Like if it stalled the boat or something. If weeds can stall a boat, I think a squid could. Maybe the gashes aren't the cause of death... :twocents:

Joey

Even on a small motorboat, there's surprisingly little feedback when your prop hits something... maybe some noise or a bump, but not a whole lot. I've luckily avoided this myself so far (probably more by not having that much time in motorboats than anything else) but I understand it's a fairly common occurrence to mangle the propellor on rocks or logs or something and not even notice. The engines on power boats are really high torque, and the spun up prop has a lot of intertia, so slicing through squid or manatee or scuba diver flesh really doesn't impact the way the boat behaves much differently than slicing through water. If you hit a big rock, yeah, you'll notice some of the time, although typically that'll mangle the prop and push the boat a little up or sideways... Weeds and kelp are a very different situation, where they get wound around the shaft, building up to where the engine is putting all of its power into overcoming the tangled mess rather than keeping the prop spinning, and as the prop spins it winds up more and more gunk, so it will tend to slowly lose speed and power and head up until the engine can't fight it any more and stalls out... that's a slow buildup of gunk rather than a single impact, though.
 
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jc45;78771 said:
If it was a propeller strike, wouldn't the boat captain notice that they'd just gashed a huge animal? Like if it stalled the boat or something. If weeds can stall a boat, I think a squid could. Maybe the gashes aren't the cause of death... :twocents:
Hello Joey,

If those gashes were caused by a boat's revolving prop, it's possible the pilot didn't feel anything: squid are fairly soft-bodied, much more so than a marine mammal. I agree with you that those cuts aren't the likely cause of death. They don't appear to have penetrated into the mantle cavity, where most of a squid's vital organs are.

Cheers,
Clem

ps: Oops, Monty just explained the mechanics of a boat-strike very well, so, what he said.:roll:
 
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Perhaps it was already a floating carcass when the prop struck? It may not necessarily have been the cause of death.
 
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