The big-fin squid is a cephalopod like he‘e the octopus, but it is a newcomer to shallow Hawaiian coral reefs.
This 10-to-14-inch long, schooling squid usually lives in the deep ocean waters, and comes up to the surface at night. Our spinner dolphins love to feed on large schools of muhe‘e at night, and this squid is an important commercial seafood and fishing bait in countries like Japan. The fishing boats go out to sea at night and shine bright lights onto the sea surface, which attracts schools of squid. Then they catch them with large nets. When you go shore fishing and buy squid for bait, this is what you are using.
In Hawai‘i these deep water squid have been coming in close to shore over the past few years, and you can see them out on the coral reefs in small schools of five to 10. Muhe‘e is amazing to watch because like the octopus they change colors quickly from brown to green to a full rainbow pattern. They have two large fins on their sides that undulate in a ripple-like motion, so they can move forwards or backwards. These fins change colors quickly.
The squid has eight arms and two long tentacles, and they are very intelligent. Why they have suddenly shown up in shallow Hawaiian waters is a mystery, and it is a real treat to see them. The best way to find muhe‘e is to snorkel at night because they are attracted to the divers’ bright lights.
There are many different species of squid in the sea, and most of them live in the deep ocean and rarely come to the surface. The giant squid that lives off of the Pacific Northwest looks very similar to our big-fin squid, but it grows to over 20 feet long!
These squid are caught and served in restaurants as calamari, but they are also eaten by certain whale and shark species. Even great-white sharks off of Mexico are known to dive down over 2,000 feet deep to feed on the giant squid, and these strange creatures are the subject of many old sea-monster stories! The largest recorded giant squid was 43 feet long!
You can see muhe‘e in action up on my underwater educational web page at www.underwater2web.com
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Terry Lilley is a marine biologist living in Hanalei, and co-founder of Reef Guardians Hawai‘i, a nonprofit on a mission to provide education and resources to protect the coral reef. To donate to Reef Guardians Hawaii go to www.reefguardianshawaii.org.
