Video: Hunting Humboldt squid

The red devil reacts when faced with danger (Image: Brian J. Skerry/NGS/Getty)

MEXICAN fishing fleets call them diablos rojos, or “red devils” – and when Stanford University graduate student Julie Stewart wrestles the first Humboldt squid aboard our research vessel, the Fulmar, in California’s Monterey Bay, it becomes obvious why.

This beast is angry, and has flashed from white to a deep maroon. It’s nearly 1.5 metres long, including the tentacles, which flail in Stewart’s hair until she can offload the catch into a cooler filled with seawater. That only gives the squid ammunition, as it can …