The great Guadalupe Island Squid Mystery seems to be solved with an email we received this morning and it looks like we might be contributing to science.Aloha Annie et al.,
The squid is Leachia dislocata . It is the third arms that are elongated, not the fourth but this is difficult to tell from the photograph. The squid looks (pigmentation) like it is close to maturity. I hope that it was preserved. It is a valuable specimen and should be sent to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (c/o Dr. Eric Hochberg).
Best wishes,
Dick
Editors Note: The specimen was saved, and then thrown out last night as it was sitting in the chefs freezer on board the MV Horizon. The good news is the crew went "dumpster diving" as soon as we called and our little Leachia dislocata has been brought back for science...in the nick of time.
Science ain't pretty sometimes but the crew of the MV Horizon and Shark Diver will go to almost any lengths to help it along.
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