Operation Squid Day Held at Alaska SeaLife Center.

• Author: PILKINGTON, STEVE
• Position: Brief Article

If the famous story of a giant squid attacking the Nautilus fascinated you, or even if you just would like to know more about he calamari on your plate, the Alaska SeaLife Center this month has the perfect way for you to learn more about these fascinating sea creatures.

On June 2, the center will host Operation Squid Day, highlighted by the dissection of a 12-foot squid, lectures, plenty of information and facts about cephalopods, and the unveiling of a new squid display.

"It's going to be a big day," said Aaron Saunders, special events coordinator for the SeaLife Center. "We are also working on getting a squid expert here for a lecture."

The Alaska SeaLife Center is affiliated with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, and has a science director from there. Located in Seward, the center sits on a seven-acre waterfront site adjacent to the school's Institute of Marine Science, Seward Marine Center, a marine laboratory and home port of Alaska's oceanographic vessel, Alpha Helix. Here the center is close to numerous seabird colonies, marine mammal concentrations and salmon spawning streams in Resurrection Bay and the Kenai Fjords National Park and Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.

Now, thanks to timely donations, the center will be adding a special exhibit to educate visitors about squid in Alaska's waters as well.

"We have two squids. It was a great stroke of luck to have two of these donated at the same time," Saunders said. "One of them came from Unalaska."

The dissection of one of them will be done either in a public area or in a necropsy room while it is displayed on closed circuit television for viewers. The other specimen will be part of a permanent exhibit.

"That entire exhibit will be unveiled on June 2," Saunders said. "It's in a section (of the center)...