Up Close with a Jumbo Squid

Aran Mooney (left to right), Iliana Ruiz-Cooley, and Darlene Ketten confer with Julie Arruda over a Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas) from Baja Mexico. Ruiz-Cooley came to WHOI recently from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to collaborate on studies of the anatomy and hearing abilities of Humboldt squid. The animals are fierce predators and an increasingly important commercial species–and they appear to be expanding their range as far north as Alaska of late. Mooney has done extensive work on auditory perception in squid, recently publishing a study that revealed previously unknown details about hearing in another species, Loligo pealii.(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)