Available wild-caught, these marine cephalopods have mottled purpley-brown skin with long, rounded side fins running almost the full length of their body, 8 shorter arms and 2 longer tentacles. They are found inshore to depths of less than 100m, commonly in coastal bays and inlets around southern Australia from Brisbane to Shark Bay, WA. Most of the commercial catch comes from SA.
They tend to gather near the seabed during the day and spread out at night throughout the water, coming to the surface to feed. They are mainly caught by jigging (using lights to attract them to the water’s surface at night), but also as bycatch in tunnel nets, trawling, inshore haul nets and beach seines.
‘Calamari’ is the Italian word for ‘Squids’, but it also refers to those species of Squid whose side fins run the full length of their bodies as opposed to those with relatively shorter side fins.