Skip to main content

World's largest cuttlefish makes a rock star revival



The giant Australian cuttlefish (Sepia apama) is the world’s largest cuttlefish species, growing up to 50 centimetres in length. They have 10 appendages – 8 short arms and 2 larger tentacles.

The cephalopod is native to the southern coast of Australia, from Brisbane to Western Australia. It is commonly found on rocky reefs and in seagrass. Their lifespan is 2-3 years. They are known for changing colour rapidly, due to their chromatophores. They are carnivorous (meat eaters), preying on crabs, small lobsters, and fish. Their predators are fur seals, sea lions, albatross, and bottlenose dolphins. Bottlenose dolphins can remove the ink and cuttlebone from the cuttlefish before eating them.

Their breeding ground in Australia is the upper Spencer Gulf in South Australia near Whyalla during May and August each year. The spawing period is an extraordinary event attracting marine biologists and tourists from around the world. Their mating ritual is elaborate, using multi-coloured strobing effects and psychedelic skin patterns to attract mates. They literally light up!!

Cuttlefish are mostly used for their ‘bones’ – which are actually soft, calcareous material – for pet birds to sharpen and clean their beaks.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listed the Sepia apama as ‘near threatened’ in 2012. In 2011 the number of cuttlefish in Spencer Gulf declined drastically for an unexplained reason. Instead of hundreds of thousands of cuttlefish, the count dropped to about 13,500 in 2013. They were facing extinction as early as 2016.

The South Australian government established a Cuttlefish Working Group in 2013 to address the problem and to establish a research program. Now numbers are increasing and the Sepia apama may be making a spectacular comeback. Scientist will continue to monitor their numbers and advocate for extended research programs.

The South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) recorded the cuttlefish population near Whyalla at more than 130,000 this year – a vast improvement on the previous two years. The Whyalla Cuttlefish Citizen Scientist Group and Conservation Council SA say cuttlefish are the rock stars of South Australia’s marine environment.


MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That
1 comment
Read more

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass
Post a Comment
Read more

The Beggars' Strike by Aminata Sow Fall: book review

The Beggar’sStrike (1979 in French and 1981 in English) is set in an unstated country in West Africa in a city known only as The Capital. Undoubtedly, Senegalese author Sow Fall writes of her own experiences. It was also encapsulated in the 2000 film, Battu , directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko from Mali. Mour Ndiaye is the Director of the Department of Public Health and Hygiene, with the opportunity of a distinguished and coveted promotion to Vice-President of the Republic. Tourism has declined and the government blames the local beggars in The Capital. Ndiaye must rid the streets of beggars, according to a decree from the Minister. Ndiaye instructs his department to carry out weekly raids. One of the raids leads to the death of lame beggar, Madiabel, who ran into an oncoming vehicle as he tried to escape, leaving two wives and eight children. Soon after, another raid resulted in the death of the old well-loved, comic beggar Papa Gorgui Diop. Enough is enou
8 comments
Read more