200 Dead Squid Wash Up on 2 Area Beaches
About 200 squid washed up on Leadbetter Beach and near Goleta Beach this week.
More than a foot long with tentacles extending another two feet, the squid scattered on the sand early Wednesday before being attacked by birds or hauled off by beach visitors, said marine biologist David Ono of the state Department of Fish and Game.
Eric Hochberg, curator of invertebrate zoology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, planned to compare the latest dissection data with records from past incidents in hopes of explaining why the squid are dying.
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