Meter-long squid washes up on northern Israeli beach
Rarely seen in Israel, the flying neon squid specimen offers ‘a small glimpse of a wonderful world hidden from us,’ says marine expert who spotted it half-buried in the sand
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
A roughly meter-long (3.3 feet) dead squid, half buried in the sand, caught the eye of a marine expert Sunday as he walked along a northern Israeli beach.
Bar Sternbach, who coordinates marine projects at the Society for the Protection of Nature — including its SeaWatch application — spotted what was later identified as a specimen of flying neon squid at the Kfar Galim beach near Haifa.
Upon noticing something red in the sand, he approached and identified tentacles. “I started digging around it, and couldn’t believe what appeared in front of me — the largest squid I’ve ever seen. It was about a meter long, lifeless, of course,” he told Channel 12.
The average length of a neon squid is closer to half a meter (1.6 feet).
“As someone who spends a lot of time on beaches and in the sea, it was amazing to see it for the first time. I took a picture and reported it on the SeaWatch app,” which gave a specific identification for the squid, Sternbach said.
“It’s hard for us to imagine the richness and diversity of life in the sea, and here, walking on the beach, we got a small glimpse of a wonderful world hidden from us,” he added.
The species Ommastrephes bartramii is common in most of the world’s seas and oceans, but it is relatively rare in the Mediterranean.
"ראיתי זרועות מבצבצות" • אירוע נדיר ליד חיפה: דיונון 'ניאון מעופף' ענק נפלט לחוףhttps://t.co/uqbtUqaxOz pic.twitter.com/14d9AABo8D
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It swims quickly and can shoot out of the water, like a flying fish, for reasons biologists still do not fully understand. It lives for around a year.
It feeds on small fish, crustaceans, and even other squid, playing a significant role in the ecological balance of open waters. Its main predators — which it tries to confuse by shooting out ink — are larger marine mammals, big fish, and sharks.
The species migrates over vast distances during the seasons, rising to shallow water layers at night to hunt. It reproduces by releasing large balls of eggs. Shortly after spawning, it dies.
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