Squid do not beach themselves as far as I know (don't ask me why I know about squid). There's more to the story than "pursuing grunion". Could be the mega-decibel underwater comm testing the navy is doing, although no porpoises or whales have turned up dead. Could be natural or man-made toxins in the water (like "red tide" bacteria or something related to oil drilling off the CA coast).

Of course! I's a terrorist attack. They're disrupting the La Jolla beach tourism. Damn those terrorists! Where's TIPS when you need it?