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Squid

European Squid

Loligo vulgaris

Loligo vulgaris Lamarck, 1798 · Loliginidae WoRMS 140271

Reference photos

Tap a photo to enlarge.

Very like the veined squid, but its diamond-shaped fins are shorter, about 55 to 65% of the mantle length against 70 to 75%, and the two central rows of suckers on each tentacle club are much larger than the outer rows. A shelf-water squid of the coast down to about 500 m, close to the bottom by day and up in the water column to feed at night.

Depth

Surface down to about 500 m, but usually shallower than 100 m

Size

Mantle up to 640 mm in males and 485 mm in females, to 2.3 kg; over 500 mm in European waters

Habitat

Coastal shelf water over coarse sand, silt or seagrass; needs firm objects to attach its egg strings to

Behaviour

Close to the seabed by day, spreading up into the water column to feed at night

Diet

I eat

  • Mainly fish and crustaceans, fish becoming the commonest prey as the squid grows
  • Small shoaling shelf fish such as sandeels, horse mackerel, sprat and herring
  • Young squid take planktonic crustaceans such as copepods, mysids and krill, plus fish larvae

Eats me

  • Toothed whales and dolphins, including bottlenose and Risso's dolphins and the pilot whale
  • Large predatory fish such as swordfish, bluefin tuna and greater amberjack
  • Sharks and rays, including lesser spotted dogfish, thornback ray and blonde ray

Where you'd find it

Found around most of Britain and Ireland, though less often in the waters west of Ireland and the waters west of Scotland.

ChannelCeltic SeaNorth SeaIrish SeaW of IrelandW of Scotland
Often seenNow and thenWhere PEBL filmsBased on marine survey records (OBIS). Blank seas can mean nobody has looked there, not that the animal is absent.

Sources

Open-access references behind this page. Every statement on this page was read out of one of them; anything that could not be traced to a source was taken off the page rather than left standing. Each link was checked on the date shown, and confirmed then to be about this species.

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