Bathers on Tuesday probably thought that they had come across an alien floating in the water off Playa Velilla but it was just a gooey cloud of eggs laid by a diamond squid.

Biologist Luis Sánchez Tocino identified this egg mass as coming from a squid about 50 metres from the shore. The strange mass was an iridescent pink, gelatinous, cylindrical tube measuring around 60 centimetres long and 20 centimetres in diameter.

How many eggs is that? Around 70,000!

This kind of squid has the Latin name of Thysanoteuthis rhombus. As you probably already know, ‘Rhomboid’ means diamond shape.

Anyway, the blighter inhabits subtropical waters, so it’s very uncommon in the Mediterranean and usually inhabits open waters.

However, according to Prof. Sánchez Tocino, who belongs to the Department of Zoology at the University of Granada, there have been sightings before: in August 2024, an adult squid was seen swimming very close to the shore off Playa Granada.

So how big is one of these squids? Is it a “Release-the-Kraken!” size? Nope, it can grow up to between 1.3 metres and 2.0 metres, if it has its tentacles extended, and weighing around 30 kg.

This means it is technically considered a ‘giant’ squid, but not like the really giant blighters belonging to the  Architeuthis genus, which can reach up to 20 metres in length but fortunately lives on the bottom in deep waters.

The Spanish don’t generally eat the Thysanoteuthis rhombus but the Japanese do like to get their gnashers stuck into them.

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)

Keywords: Giant Squid Spawn, Playa Velilla, Biologist, Department of Zoology, University of Granada, Playa Granada, Architeuthis, Thysanoteuthis rhombus

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