It’s a Squid Thing

I was beginning to think the whole Squid Thing wouldn’t take place. I just kept running in to one stumbling block after another.

The Seward SeaLife Center has a 4-person minimum requirement, and at first I couldn’t get four people to commit to going. When I finally had my four, the SeaLife Center was booked for the day we wanted to do it so we had to change gears and go a day earlier. And then, two days before the big event, one of my four backed out on me, saying he really wasn’t interested after all. We subtly talked him in to it, so that on the day of our reservations we had all four people show up at the center – only to find that they didn’t have anybody on hand that could conduct the Cephalopod Encounter (as it is officially known as).

Finally, however, it was all good to go, and we all sat down in one of the education rooms and prepared ourselves for The Squid Thing.

Our guide for the Cephalopod Encounter was Kathleen (or at least I think it was – I’m so bad with remembering names!), and she was great. She gave each of us our very own squid, all laid out on a little tray with our dissection tools neatly arranged off to the side. The squids were roughly 8 inches long and were originally intended as feed for the local residents of the center.

Kathleen went over a bit of the family tree for us, to give us some background on the animal. There are four members of the Cephalopod class: the nautilus, the cuttlefish, the squid, and the octopus. The nautilus, of course, still has its shell – while the squid and cuttlefish both have vestigial shells, and the octopus has no shell at all.

We looked at its mouth parts, located in the center of its eight tentacles (arms) and two longer feeding arms. Using a pair of tweezers, we not-so-gently pulled the beak off. If you did it right (which I did not), you got the esophagus along with it. The esophagus is a very skinny tube, so the animal has to swallow very tiny pieces of food to get it past its head, or it could cause serious brain damage!

Next, we took a pair of scissors and cut down the “belly of the beast” and opened it up to inspect the internal organs. We located its gills: long grayish looking things that looked like intestines to me. At the base of the gills, we located two of its three hearts: the fact that the animal actually has blood is rather impressive, when looked at from an evolutionary point of view. We even located its ink sack, and several other organs which scientists have no clue as to what their purposes are.

By taking a firm hold of its head and firmly/gently pulling, we detached the mantle and were then able to locate the vestigial shell: a plastic-looking piece they call a “pen”. It’s truly remarkable, actually, and you can literally dip the pen into the ink sack and write your name. Kelly wrote hers on her napkin, while Mother’s squid had inked itself during dissection so didn’t have enough left over for such a long name (Maureen).

Next came the really gooey part: we got to cut into the eye and locate its lens: a teeny tiny little thing that looks like a glass bead. A squid can apparently only see in black & white – which is quite amazing once you realize that it changes color to match its surroundings. Scientists have no idea how it can match colors that it can’t even see. They’re still working on that.

To round out the experience, Kathleen showed us how the squid changes its color by manipulating tiny muscles on its mantle. We simulated this by rubbing vigorously with our finger and got the animal to turn red. Or, like me, you simply ruptured the skin and got goo all over your finger.

All in all, it was quite an exciting day – once it finally happened!