The Boy in the Submarine – Season 2, Episode 10: Bigfin Reef Squid

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Bigfin Reef Squid is the name of a tiny squid close to Owen’s heart… or so we thought! These sneaky, sparkling squid turned out to be a cryptospecies complex: several different kind of squid that all look so much alike that scientists couldn’t tell them apart until they studied their DNA. That’s okay – owen loves them all.

Bigfin reef squid are one of the only kind(s) of squid that can hear, and they are one of the most social, they know and stick close to their families. They sparkle because of special cells in their body called scinitillophores.

Some important fish we eat like swordfish and tuna live on these little guys, and we eat lots of them, too. They are very important to us!