Local fishermen seem to have been given a gift — a rich fishing season without environmental consequences.
The giver?
Humboldt or “jumbo” squid, true monsters of the deep, which have arrived mysteriously off the coast of the entire Pacific Northwest.
In fact, fishermen might very well be doing the ocean ecosystem a favor by catching the voracious creatures, said the Stanford professor whose career is studying them.
William Gilly, Ph.D., a world-renowned jumbo squid expert, told a Town Hall audience their previous northern limit was Monterey. Now they are appearing all the way to Alaska.
Jumbo squid are one of the fastest-growing creatures on Earth, going from nearly microscopic to a 5-foot-long, 100-pounds in a short 2-year-lifespan. They range in color from white to purplish-red and have a mass of 10 tentacles, protective ink, powerful suction cups, a beak capable of inflicting serious injury on humans, and are considered intelligent and adaptive.
Gilly said despite their intelligence “they don”t spend a lot of time thinking about philosophy.” He described them as constant eating, growing and breeding machines.
Their growth rate makes them both a stunningly renewable food resource and a tremendous threat to slow-growing rockfish, hake and sardines, Gilly explained. All three of these are important commercial fishing industries in Northern California.
Noyo Harbor party boat owner Randy Thorton sees the squid as a dream catch for recreational and commercial fishermen but a nightmare for the rest of the fishery.
“Having seen and caught these squid, I am very concerned for the fish out there,” Thorton told Gilly.
Gilly believes that recent expansion of a depleted-oxygen zone deep in the ocean has caused the predators to migrate much farther north than ever before.
“This is … a creature ideally suited to climate change,” he said.
There is one hitch in the global warming theory. The jumbo squid also appeared off Central California in the 1930s, stayed about half a decade, decimating the fishery, and then vanished as mysteriously as they came, Gilly explained.
The jumbo squid manifests seemingly bizarre behavior at times, such as live beaching in large numbers after an earthquake.
They are the world”s most important ocean food invertebrates, Gilly said. Jumbo squid comprise 1 percent of all the seafood caught in the world. They are an important source of food and the basis for large fishing industries in South America, where they were named for the Humboldt ocean current. If they stay locally, they could provide a rich fishery.
Scientists don”t know whether the squid will eat adult salmon but they will devour the young on their way out to sea.
The Noyo Harbor Commission sponsored Gilly”s Fort Bragg trip as a way to create a new fishery for a community decimated by closures that show little sign of abating.
There are no commercial or recreational restrictions for those who want to catch the squid.
Wednesday”s Town Hall audience feasted on fried and roasted calamari recipes made from jumbo squid caught that day by Thorton and prepared by North Coast Brewing Company. Fort Bragg fisherman Frank Bertoli”s squid in an Italian marinade was also a hit.
Thorton had to travel 11 miles off Fort Bragg to catch Wednesday”s dinner in 1,100 feet of water.
Gilly described the jumbo squids” unique deep diving and surface feeding journeys, which mean fishermen might not have to go so deep. Gilly also told the crowd about Bertoli”s invention of a new multi-lure and line system which could help turn a natural curiosity into a new industry.
Noyo Harbor Commissioner Jim Burns and Mendocino County Supervisor Kendall Smith described efforts to reverse a rising tide of red ink that has come in as the fishing industry has gone out.
Burns said the Harbor Commission is currently operating in the black with the help of federal bailout funds.
If a major new fishing industry were to arrive, slip fees would raise all boats.
But although this visit by the Humboldt squid is much more extensive and long-lasting than the one in the 1930s, some fear investment in creating an industry only to have the squid disappear again. Gilly couldn”t rule out that possibility.
Jumbo squid are spawned by the millions; the tiny critters are eaten by everything in the ocean in areas where they spawn, Gilly said. But local waters are too cold for spawning, meaning only the large adult jumbo squid are found off the Mendocino Coast.
Adult jumbo squid eat almost everything in the ocean. Large tuna, sailfish and sperm whales are on the short list of creatures that dine on the adults. That could also mean good news for the now-minimal local tuna fishery.
Biologist Ron LeValley pointed out that the squid would also devour foods needed by birds.
Despite numerous erroneous media reports, jumbo squid are not the same creature as “giant” squid. Jumbos are much smaller.
Giant squid grow to more than 40 feet long, live in the ocean depths, and very little is still known about them. Until recently, many scientists believed giant squid to be mythical creatures only found in H.G. Wells” book, “20,000 Leagues under the Sea.”
Jumbo squid were first studied in detail by John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts on a famous voyage to the Mexico”s Sea of Cortez. Gilly participated in a reenactment voyage, which also served as another important study of jumbo squid Mexican people call Diablo Rojo or “Red Devils.”
Gilly thanked North Coast Brewing for sending along beer for the second voyage, to ensure it didn”t stray too far from the pattern set by the hard drinking 1930s men of letters.
