Squid Fleet Has High Hopes for Blue Moon

Neil Guglielmo is counting on a blue moon to pull something from the deep.

After almost two years spent trawling a sea largely empty of squid, the longtime Ventura County fisherman hopes the second full moon in January will lure enough of the schooling mollusk to salvage another lackluster year.

Squid are normally most prevalent during full moons, because of the increased light and change in tidal activity.

“I don’t think any of us could have asked for better conditions,” said Guglielmo, who also runs the Southern California Seafood processing house in Oxnard. “The weather’s been good, the tides and currents are favorable, and having another full moon is great. Problem is, there’s not much out there.”

Among Ventura County’s squid fleet, there was a feeling last year that this season would be better than last.

That optimism, however, has dimmed as squid populations along the coast remain scarce after warm, El Nino waters chased the catch away in late 1997.

And while catch numbers have improved since last season, they haven’t increased enough to comfort seiners like Guglielmo, who fear that without a marked improvement over the next month, their livelihoods could be lost.

According to biologists at the state Department of Fish and Game, about 700 tons of squid were landed statewide in 1998.

While that is better than 1997, when virtually none were caught, those landings are a far cry from the bountiful 1996 season, when 12,850 tons were netted.

“This fishery isn’t at all what it was like two or three years ago,” said Maria Vojkovich, a Fish and Game biologist who is studying the squid population. “Two seasons ago there wasn’t a night that went by that these guys weren’t pulling in tons and tons of squid. . . . Right now, catches are few and far between.”

The growth of the squid fishery has been explosive over the past decade and recently accounted for a large portion of the overall success of commercial fishing, which annually generates more than $800 million.

In 1989, squid landings totaled just 19 million pounds and grew steadily until peaking in 1997 as demand in Asian markets increased.

However, the population virtually disappeared in late 1997, when the warm waters near the coast chased the catch to colder areas farther out to sea.

With an absent fishery, most seiners remained tied to their moorings as they searched for ways to keep their families fed and creditors at bay.

“With El Nino, no one thought we’d be able to do as good as the year before, but I don’t think anyone expected it to be that bad,” said Mike McLenaghan, a Seattle-based fisherman who nets squid off the Ventura County coast. “There was nothing out there, nothing at all.”

Despite the fact that ocean temperatures have returned to normal, the squid population has remained elusive and catches spotty.

Biologists estimate it may take as long as three years for the fishery to fully return, but they see encouraging signs.

Specifically, they have documented squid spawning off the Channel Islands and some coastal shoals.

“The ocean doesn’t operate on a season-to-season basis,” Vojkovich said. “After an El Nino event as strong as the one we just had, it could take some time for everything to get back to normal.”

Until then, people like Guglielmo will have to wait and hope that the blue moons this month and in March will attract the schools.

“As much as I wish I were wrong, I don’t think there’s some kind of bonanza around the next corner,” he said. “We’ll just have to wait and get what we can until we’re back to where we were.”

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