Longfin Squid More Prevalent
Than Usual
by Laurie Schreiber
The summer trimester’s
share of that quota
was caught very quickly.
– Jason Didden, MAFMC
Anecdotal reports indicate that longfin squid is more prevalent than usual in Maine’s inshore waters.
Until recently, Port Clyde Fresh Catch was receiving between 15 and 40 pounds of squid each morning, from two fishermen who harvested at night. The harvest seems to be drying up though, said the community-supported fishery organization’s Dick McGee.
An Aug. 16 post on the Maine Striped Bass Fishing blog, under the headline “Squid and Sharks Invade Maine Inshore Waters,” says, “Strange things were happening along Maine’s coast during the 2012 fishing season. First, an invasion of squid occupied the inshore waters of Maine from Kittery to Penobscot Bay.
People who actually wanted bucket loads of squid did so easily at night from a well lit dock area or on a boat with a strong light like a Coleman camping light. I for one have never seen such a strong run of squid from July through August. The numerous squid I caught were in four to 14 inches in size.”
An Aug. 14 fishing report on the Kittery Trading Post website says that “squid jigs are flying out the door.”
Linda Mercer, director of the Department of Marine Resources’ Bureau of Marine Science, said she’s received anecdotal reports of abundant squid inshore.
“People are catching them off their docks at night with lights,” Mercer said.
A recent communication with fishery management counterparts in Canada says there has been a prevalence of squid around the seaside town of Saint Andrews, in New Brunswick, she said. “They couldn’t remember seeing them inshore like that,” she said.
Sea surface temperatures have been warm over the past year, and may be causing the influx, Mercer said.
Squid is not a big fishery in Maine, compared with the Mid-Atlantic and Southern New England.
Warm sea temperatures have likely contributed to other unusual phenomena this summer, such as the early lobster shedding season and the arrival of gray triggerfish, usually a southern species, Mercer said.
According to Maine Sea Grant, longfin squid (Loligo pealei) is fished commercially and sold for human consumption. It is also used as bait in fisheries for big game fish such as striped bass. It moves into shallow waters around Cape Cod and southern Gulf of Maine in the spring, with schools of butterfish, scup, and whiting. Longfin squid can grow up to two feet long, and they crush and eat food with bird-like beaks.
A second type of squid found in the region is shortfin or summer squid (Illex illecebrosus). In the United States, it is used primarily for bait.
Squid is managed by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC) as part of the Atlantic Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan. Current regulations limit the amount of squid that can be harvested each year, and the catch quota is divided into three periods throughout the fishing year. MAFMC fishery specialist Jason Didden and squid biologist Lisa Hendrickson, at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC), said that similar reports of high longfin squid abundance in inshore waters this summer have come their way.
“We’ve had very high catches nearshore reported in Massachusetts,” said Hendrickson, citing, for example, Provincetown, where people can be seen jigging for squid off the docks or off their boats. A jig is a type of fishing lure. Squid migrate inshore during the summer, she said, and noted that “this is happening along other sections of New England as well (e.g., Maine).”
According to Didden, the summer fishery in general was quite successful. The fishery is divided into three trimesters, and is capped by an overall quota.
The summer trimester’s share of that quota was caught “very quickly,” he said, and that appears to indicate that squid overall is quite abundant. Once a trimester’s quota is caught, the fishery is shut down until the next trimester. The most recent stock assessment indicates the current overall quota is likely to be sustainable, he said. Didden added that, for the future, the council will likely examine real-time management, especially given the squid resource’s variability in terms of its abundance.
Hendricksion also noted that another potential future issue is unreported longfin catch by jigging, both recreational and small-scale commercial, since current laws require all catch to be accounted for.
Squid have “boom and bust” production cycles, Hendrickson said. They generally live for less than a year. Their life history is complex. When conditions are right, with respect to water temperature and food resources, a boom cycle might occur. Temperature is very important in relation to the animal’s growth rate and egg-hatching rate. Studies by the NEFSC staff show that East Coast ocean temperatures are generally increasing, Hendrickson said. Changing thermal patterns are likely affecting the animal’s migration and development patterns.
“If the water temperature and food is there, their availability can increase rapidly,” said Didden. “It’s not totally unexpected that we see these changes from year to year, but it’s definitely not something we’ve seen off Maine recently – that apparent abundance.”
Hendrickson said it is unclear whether the stock is displaying higher overall abundance coastwide, or whether squid that are normally found in higher abundance close to shore in southerly waters have moved into the inshore Gulf of Maine because of changing temperature patterns.
“The way to figure that out would be to do a survey during the summer, but we don’t have a summer survey,” she said. “But given it’s happening in Provincetown and up there [in Maine], it will be interesting to see what our fall survey shows us. If it’s off the charts, that will be quite telling.”