Warmer ocean temperatures spawn California market squid boom

U.S. West Coast fishers are enjoying a monumental season for California market squid.

A cool, wet beginning of the year has helped created ideal spawning conditions for the squid (Doryteuthis opalescens), which grow around eight to 10 inches and live six to nine months. With a geographic range stretching from Alaska to Mexico, California market squid spawn from April to November off the coast of California. Fishermen target the squid shortly after they spawn to ensure the health of the population. However, little is known about their population abundance as no study has ever been carried out by NOAA.

“[They’re] very mysterious,” Scripps Institution of Oceanography Marine Ecologist Ed Parnell told the La Jolla Light. “They’re very hard to follow.”

Nevertheless, San Diego, California-based fisherman Kelly Fukushima said the fishery is “extremely healthy.”

The squid feed at night and fishermen use two boats to catch them – a scouting and aggregating vessel equipped with high-powered lights, and a second vessel that catches and hauls in the squid. California market squid is eaten both locally and processed for distribution, and it’s also caught as a baitfish – they’re used to catch yellowtail, halibut, and white sea bass, among other species.

“It’s an incredibly important commercial species.,” Fukushima said.

The spawning happens sporadically depending on environmental conditions, according to Fukushima. Cooler ocean water temperatures from the lower-than-normal air temperatures earlier this year have helped create a boom thus far in the season, Fukushima said.

“This event that we’re having now really hasn’t happened since about 2009 to 2012,” Parnell said. Warmer ocean water in recent years had caused the squid to gradually shift north up the California coast, he said.

Photo courtesy of Kirk Wester/Shutterstock