Surrounded by a frothing school of squid !

[bluewaterjon]

I had a wild encounter with a huge shoal of squid just the other day!

I had been kayaking with a friend. He stood up on his kayak to get a good view.
He saw a red frothing bait ball. Had it been in tropical waters, that would not be too unusual; it would probably have been smaller red fish. Thing is, in Southern CA, there are no such schools of fish on the surface. What was it?
I dove under my friend's kayak to see what it was:

It was a school of squid trying to evade predators, and they had fled to the surface!
The school was so think I was able to grab one and cradle it gently in my hand.

I then put it in my mouth and gently held it in place while I snapped a self portrait!
The pics made the cover of the San Diego Union Tribune. Stoked!
Click here to check out the rest of the story & pics.
Cheers,
Jon Schwartz

 

[RauschPhotography]

Incredible! Thanks for sharing.

 

[kundalini]

Very cool photos Jon. Thanks for sharing.

On an aside.... do you ever happen to listen to Science Friday on NPR? The reason I ask is they did a story this past week on the Humpback whale's hunting technique using bubbles. You may find it interesting. It's the featured video on the upper left of the home page.
sciencefriday.com - making science user-friendly

 

[joealcantar]

Cool shots here and in the blog and gamefish,
-
Thanks for sharing , shoot well, Joe

 

[bluewaterjon]

Thanks fellas for the input! Kundalini, I do listen to NPR but I didn't hear that piece. The whales- particularly how the sperm whales battle the giant squids way down deep, and end up scarred from the experience with sucker holes on their heads and oodles of squid beaks in their stomachs, is something that has always fascinated me. I will check out that link.
Thanks again,
Jon