By Paul Lebowitz

Hungry Humboldt Squid Here to Stay?

Vast numbers of Humboldt squid flooded into Southern California waters this winter. Like something out of science fiction, these fascinating animals display many bizarre properties. They’re also a fun and novel nighttime wake-up for anglers suffering the mid-winter blues. Oh, how these things pull drag!

Weighing up to 100 pounds and reaching total lengths of six to seven feet from head to arm-tip, the big squid are efficient eating machines armed with natural weapons straight out of a fevered imagination.

Barbed teeth ring each sucker on a Humboldt’s eight powerful arms. Within that deadly circle awaits a wickedly sharp beak to tear and rip chunks of living flesh from its unfortunate prey, which could be just about anything in reach.

Humboldt squid don’t have discriminating palates. “They’re a visual predator with very large eyes. They eat just about anything that moves,” said Dale Sweetnam. The Senior Biologist Supervisor with the California Department of Fish and Game ticked off a menu ranging from tiny morsels to full meals: copepods, a type of small crustacean; euphausiids, a fancy name for krill; and a whole host of finfish including rockfish, mackerel, and sardines.

They don’t stop there; Humboldt squid are documented cannibals. If they sense an advantage, a pack will tear a fellow squid to shreds. When an angler hooks one, it sometimes comes up missing great chunks. 

All that indiscriminate eating fuels a prodigious growth rate. Humboldts live only a year or two. From zero to seven feet in two years? Impressive creatures for certain, and we’ve yet to cover their other strange abilities: directional jet drive, chemical warfare including membranes that taste foully of ammonia and that all-staining ink, plus a facility to change skin color that would put a chameleon to shame. Some researchers suspect their rapid and psychedelic color changes could be a form of communication used to coordinate pack hunts.

To members of the local sportfishing community, the surprise appearance of Humboldt squid in Southern California three years ago was something of a mystery. The big squid aren’t native. Sweetnam said they normally range from Chile in the southern hemisphere only as far north as Baja California. A year later they returned to local waters, but only for a short time. Now they’re back in numbers one employee of a sportfishing landing termed “seemingly never-ending.” Sweetnam said in 2007 they’ve reached as far as Fort Brag in northern California.

Mike Gauger of San Diego landing Seaforth Sportfishing recalls catching Humboldt squid in the 1970s and then not again until recently. “All of a sudden they’re here on a pretty regular basis. They’re getting more prevalent instead of less. I wish I could explain it,” Gauger said.

DFG biologist Sweetnam might have the answer: “The past couple of years we’ve had low to moderate El Niños.” El Niños bring warm water up the line; the squid rode along. Or more accurately, they followed their stomachs.

“Mainly they follow their food,” Sweetnam said, then pointed out that other marine species have shown a similar northward shift. “Sardines are now up to British Columbia. For the past few years the commercial catch of albacore has been mainly off Oregon whereas it was previously off Baja and Southern California,” Sweetnam said.

Are the squid here to stay? Probably not.

“We could be going into a La Niña. Water temperatures are cooling down. We might not see them next year,” predicted Sweetnam.

Given the Humboldt’s insatiable appetites, Southern California’s more sedentary marine species would breathe a sigh of relief if the Humboldts pulled a disappearing act – if they had lungs. Although researchers at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center are still looking into the question, Sweetnam said the big squid eat so much the “impact on the food chain can be substantial.”  

That’s not to say anglers should see them as bad news. Humboldts are a fascinating part of the natural order. Sweetnam explained: “They are a part of the food chain we don’t get to see very often. They’re really an interesting catch.”

Sweetnam encouraged anglers not to take more than they can use. “You catch five 30-lb. squid, what are you going to do with that? They’re huge,” said Sweetnam, adding that the big squid pose a storage problem even at the lab which presumably has large commercial-grade freezers.

If Sweetnam proves right about the trend for cooler ocean water temperatures, the curious Humboldt squid might vanish back into the deep soon, not to return for years. If you crave tackle-busting night time action, best grab your chance now. Gauger said some people like the circus-like mess the ink-squirters make of a sportboat’s deck so much, they’re going out time after time.

“The anglers love them. We’ve got our squid diehards. Humboldts are excellent eating,” Gauger said.