Cultural significance of squid as food

Little is known about the great toothed whales that rule Teshelyn’s depths, but what makes its way to the surface in their wake paints a picture of fearless and powerful hunters. To those that swim the shallows, the only sightings of gargantuan abyssal squid are what is left of them after they are bested by a whale. With the great whales figuring into folklore as heroic figures of a primal age, this has cast colossal squid as their villainous adversaries, which has had the added effect of stigmatizing common squid and octopodes in some cultures, primarily the roughtooth dolphins. Squid are a plentiful food source in almost all areas inhabited by dolphins, but the roughtooths will pointedly avoid eating them. The reasoning for this practice seems to have shifted over time, and varies from clan to clan, but usually either stems from the view that tentacled animals are tainted, or the view that they are to be saved for the kings of the depths.
  Wavecrest dolphins instead have taken the same folklore and come to the conclusion that squid and octopus are opportunities to prove oneself as a hunter on par with the great toothed whales. Although squid are not particularly challenging prey, it is still common practice for one to hunt squid before major challenges (rites of passage, long journeys, etc), and nearly every adult wavecrest has an entertaining yet embarrassing story about being outsmarted by an octopus.
  The silverfins, in line with their role as knowledge keepers, do not put stock in the folkloric practice, and pragmatically view squid as a food source like any other. Similarly, the orcas barely see squid as worth the effort of hunting, although there have been some among the seafaring clans that have challenged themselves to dive deep enough to find living individuals of the species they only know from fragments.