Dense squid carcasses on the beach – Photo taken from clip

According to the people of Santa Maria Island, southern Chile, the squid began to wash ashore five days ago. Up to now, the number of squid drifting in has reached thousands, many times more than usual, making the coast dense with squid.

After many days, the squid carcasses began to decompose, giving off a stench. Despite the efforts of the authorities to clean up, they seem to be overloaded, so the cleaning takes a long time, making people worry that their health will be affected.

According to NBC, experts and local police are assessing the severity of the situation, to see if it could cause a sanitary emergency.

On January 14 (Vietnam time), heavy machinery was brought to clean up the dead squid. However, the authorities are still criticized by the people for their slow response.

Dead squid carcasses are handled slowly, causing people to worry about health effects – Photo taken from the clip

Currently, the authorities are investigating the cause of the mass death of squid – Photo taken from the clip

An investigation is underway to determine why so many squid have washed ashore this year.

According to experts, they have found early evidence that the dead squid and washed ashore are caused by an oceanographic phenomenon known as “upwelling” – the process by which cold, nutrient-rich and dense seawater rises from the bottom. The sea rises to the surface, replacing the hotter water.

It is known that birds can fly freely in the sky, but few know that squids in the sea can also “fly”. In the early 1890s, several people witnessed the squid “flying”.

Marine biologist Oddo has confirmed through decades of observations that squids can indeed fly over the surface of the sea for a period of time, and he is also the first scientist to observe squids flying in an experiment.

Strictly speaking, squid flying is actually gliding through the air near the sea surface for a short distance, in 1970, he released a swarm of squid into a seawater tank in the laboratory to observe the squid’s habits. The next day, he found several squid outside the tank, including one that died from dehydration, how did these squids get out of the tank?

To prevent a similar incident from happening again, the laboratory staff lowered the water level in the tank to 1m, after turning off the lights, they watched through the monitoring device to see if the ink was coming out of the tank again.

As expected, when the lights went out, the squid began to jump out of the water and into the air, like a fighter jet taking off. Most squids can safely jump back into the pool, but a few stay outside.

When Oddo returned to the lab and turned on the lights, the squids stopped moving. After researching and understanding more about squid, Oddo found that squid can not only propel themselves into the air, but also can glide a certain distance on the surface of the sea.

However, the flight path of squid is random and difficult to observe, making it extremely difficult to study this aspect, since the early 1890s, it was first recorded that squid could fly, and after more than 130 Scientists have only observed more than 10 times a year the squid event.

When the squid are in flight, they use their fins as “wings” in the front of their bodies and twist their antennae into a fan shape to form “wings” on the back half. More than 10 years ago, Japanese scientists took pictures of squids flying in the waters near Japan and these pictures also give a clear look at how the squids fly.

Two pairs of “wings” at the front and rear can power the squid to fly, and some squid can glide more than 10 meters. In the mid-1970s, when Norwegian explorer Thor crossed the Pacific Ocean on a raft, he also witnessed a squid glide for at least 50 meters before falling into the sea.

Oddo realized that squids had the ability to control their bodies while flying through the air, possibly because squids swim in a similar way in the sea, and that these flights were simply an extension of the planet’s flight. microswimming of squid.

Squid can also make some subtle movements during flight to adjust their flight state. Some squids will suddenly swing their rear tentacles and wings down during flight, stop gliding, and fall into the sea.

The method of taking off of squid is also completely different from that of flying fish, before taking off, the flying fish will quickly hit the sea surface with its tail to create momentum, and the squid will spray water out of its body to create propulsion.

In the mid-1960s, someone captured a 1.2-meter-long American red squid, weighing about 40 kilograms, flying from the water into the air, but the squid only glided about two meters. Compared to smaller squid, the distance it glides is too short.

The smaller the squid species, the more complete their propulsion system is, they can launch themselves to a certain height, when they reach a certain initial speed, they can begin to glide a long distance, even There are even squid species that can launch themselves to a height of 6 meters above sea level.

Why did squid develop flying skills? Scientists have found that squids switch from swimming to flying when they fear or avoid predators, but Oddo believes there are more reasons why squids fly than these.

Oddo discovered that the squid’s flight speed is nearly six times faster than that of swimming in the sea, and once launched into the air, it can glide for long distances without expending energy. This low-cost movement method allows them to move quickly for a short period of time.

Squid is a migratory organism, during migration it consumes a lot of energy, but only a small amount of fat is stored in the body, it relies on the energy produced by limited fat to migrate sugar. long and therefore flying is their way of optimizing energy.

Scientists aren’t sure that all squids can fly. Now they are trying to further study the squid by marking the squid with a tracking device. It is believed that with the latest technology, scientists may be able to uncover more unknown magical abilities of the squid.