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natural or man-made collectors should be individually sorted and placed in a bucket
with high aeration that will make them move gently (Fig. 11.2d). During egg extraction from both collectors in captivity and egg collection at the beach, eggs should be
kept moist and the use of a spray with seawater to accomplish this is recommended.
At this time, the eggs should be separated according to their morphology and colour
(Figs. 11.2e and 11.3).
Eggs collected from the wild are usually black, present a flask shape and are
attached in grape-like clusters to different substrata fixed on the bottom (Boletzky
1983; Boletzky et al. 2006). Eggs will display weights ranging from 0.1 g up to
2.5 g (Sykes et al. 2006a) and a diameter ranging from 1.2 to 1.4 cm. Only black
(ink-stained) eggs with a flask-shape morphology should be chosen, while those
with a different colour and morphology (Fig. 11.3) should be discarded properly
(Sykes et al. unpublished data).
Fig. 11.3  Morphology of different types of cuttlefish eggs obtained in captivity (characterization
and identification presented in Table 11.3). (Photos by A Sykes)
11 Sepia officinalis