An offshore earthquake that shook the Southern California coastline early Saturday might have confused several giant squid, sending them up on the beach.
The squid were first spotted at La Jolla Shores beach about 45 minutes after the 4.0 magnitude earthquake came.
The Humboldt squid were between 3 feet to 4 feet long and weighed-in at almost 40 pounds.
“It’s like their equilibrium is all messed up and they don’t know what they’re doing and they can’t back out there,” Bill Baumann said. “It was like they got — I don’t know — all shook up.”
Some swimmers and joggers began an informal rescue to push the invertebrates back into the water. However, this task proved to be difficult because they were heavy, very slippery and the squid didn’t know where to go once in the water so they kept washing back up.
Scientists say that the earthquake may have disoriented the squid, sending them landward.
Although the earthquake was large enough to be felt in western San Diego County, no injuries or property damage was reported.
Comments