Even though there has been an increase in reports of Giant Squid, sightings and findings are still relatively few and far between. Since the first photos of a live Giant Squid in its natural habitat were taken just five years ago (September 30, 2004 by Dr. Tsunemi Kubodera), there is little known about the animals habits and range of habitat. There have been only three cases of Giant Squid reported found in North America since this summer. Two have been found off in the Gulf of Mexico and one off the coast of British Columbia. In each case, a single squid was found floating in the water. This makes sense as the giant squid generally thought of to be a solitary hunter.
One theory leading to the death of Giant Squid in the Gulf of Mexico is the sudden change of ocean depth when a squid migrated from the Atlantic.
There have, however, been a few interesting cases of schools of Humbolt Squid washing up on shore this year. The Humbolt Squid travels in groups of up to 1200 individual squid and generally live in warm Pacific waters off the coast of Mexico. It is thought that because of climate changes, the Humbolt Squid populations are moving north towards the Pacific Northwest. As they move into these waters they encounter a wide variety of new environmental stresses, because of this it is necessary to examine each situation on its own.
On July 13, 2009, dozens of dazed Humbolt Squid washed up on La Jolla Shores beach in La Jolla, California. This was thought to have been caused by a magnitude 4.0 earthquake that occurred 19 miles off the coast. It is thought that the quake disoriented and confused the squid.
On September 22, 2009, Dozens of Humbolts washed ashore along the central Oregon Coast between Florence and Newport.
According to The Register-Guard:
The ones that washed up in Oregon on Tuesday were mostly about 2 feet long, with characteristic purplish red and white skin and two diamond-shaped fins that they use to swim and glide. Many were still alive when they rolled onto shore, said Bill Hanshumaker, a marine education specialist with the Hatfield Marine Science Center.
“They’re not dying offshore,” Hanshumaker said. “They’re coming to the beach in major distress, and then they die.”
Why that’s happening is something of a mystery, he added, though it was about this time last year that a group of squid were reported stranded on Oregon beaches along with about two dozen salmon sharks. A similar number of dead sharks has reappeared on Oregon beaches in recent weeks, Hanshumaker said, so it’s possible that the demise of these two types of creatures is somehow linked.
One possibility with the squid involves whether they are “terminal spawners,” a question Hanshumaker said he was researching, which could indicate that the creatures happened to spawn nearby and then came ashore and died.
On Sept. 28, 2009, 300 squid washed up on Long Beach, in British Columbia. The reason is unknown.
In these three cases, we have three potential explanations:
1- Earthquake
2- “Terminal Spawners” - They spawn nearby and then come ashore to die
3- Mysterious and Unknown
That's a lot of writing to pretty much say "it depends".
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