Graveyard squid at a depth of 1,000 meters under the sea

The probability of death after reproduction concentrated on the bottom of a sea off California, becoming a feast of feasts.

The seabed off California, USA, littered with dead squid that died of exhaustion after mating to breed and spawn, reported IFL Science on February 5. This may seem strange but plays a central role in this interconnected food web at the ocean corner.

Scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute first saw ink cemeteries in 2012. They published a discovery in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Female squid uses giant egg membranes to contain thousands of juveniles.(Photo: MBARI).

In a series of remote submarine dives, the team counted more than 60 squid dead at a depth of 1,000 meters at Cerralvo Trough, a deep basin near the southern tip of California Bay.

Next to the squid are empty squid eggs . This is a fragile membrane made of squid that lives in the deep sea to contain thousands of juveniles. Researchers are convinced that all dead squid are children covered by their own egg strip.

Within a day, corpses are often cleaned up by scavengers, including rat fish, oak worms, snake-tailed starfish, sea cucumbers, crustaceans."Whale carcasses on the seabed can last for decades. But we don't know anything about the medium-sized scavenger , " said biologist Henk-Jan Hoving. "You must be very lucky to see dead squid, surely they will be consumed within 24 hours."

Scavengers come to clean up the dead squid of the California seabed.(Photo: MBARI).

The lucky ink eggs are not destroyed, ensuring the eggs will hatch and the ink does not die meaninglessly. Other studies found that the ink pumped into the egg membrane, making the membrane harder to see and less attractive to scavengers and decomposing bacteria.

The squid banquet also helps regulate the water area at the average depth of the ocean by accelerating the process called "biological pump" . Squid eat food in this water and sink, bringing carbon to the bottom of the sea. However, climate change and overfishing are destroying the marine environment, causing fish stocks to decline and squid species to expand their range of food. Although the amount of ink can increase dramatically, the balance of carbon in the seabed will be affected.

"In this case, the ink can die almost immediately, so the dead ink can fall to the bottom of the sea in waves. This will have a big impact on the bio-carbon pumping process," Hoving said.