Natural ‘plastic’ from the surreal squid
WE are rightly concerned about the amount of plastic dumped in the oceans. But the other day I came across something that looked just like plastic, only this time produced in the sea.
I bought a fresh squid for dinner from a stall in Tavistock and set about cleaning it in the kitchen.
These are creatures from another planet, with large and uncannily human-like eyes, a long coneshaped body, skin that can rapidly change colour, a siphon enabling them to move by jet propulsion, the head and foot at one end bearing eight arms and two long tentacles covered in suckers and – the messiest part when preparing them for cooking – sacs filled with black ink which they can eject, creating a ‘smokescreen’ in water to confuse predators.
But the oddest element is the internal quill that provides stability. Those who have cleaned squid will know what I am referring to. For those who have only bought their squid in ready-cut rings then this feature, removed as part of the cleaning process, is certainly surprising.
The quill, flattened at one end, is perfectly transparent and appears as if it is made from plastic. The sides curl in when it dries, but the photograph on the right gives some idea of its appearance.
Also known as a squid pen, it is actually made of chitin – the fibrous substance which forms a key constituent of insects’ hard exoskeletons.
Cephalopods like squid are molluscs – a large taxonomical grouping which includes shellfish and snails. Some cephalopods have no shell, such as the octopus; some have an external shell, like the nautilus; while others have an internal shell, including the cuttlefish.
The squid’s quill, properly known as a gladius – from the Latin for a short sword – is a remnant of an ancestral mollusc shell.
So, an animal that contains both a pen and ink! Who knows what these surreal sea creatures would write if they could...