Fishermen, Scientists Squabble Over Squid

Fishermen and scientists are waging a battle over the future of a slimy, 6-inch invertebrate whose life cycle, many admit, is still a mystery.

Scientists are struggling to answer several basic questions about squid: How long do they live? How fast do they reproduce? And, perhaps most important, how many are there?

The answers are crucial as state and federal agencies consider whether to impose catch limits on the trendy seafood delicacy that is mostly found around the Channel Islands in Southern California and also Monterey Bay. But even as a new Department of Fish and Game report reached the governor’s desk last week, fishermen charge that still too little is known about squid to justify broad limits on when and where they can be pulled from the sea.

Fishermen question why they should take a financial hit to solve a problem--limited supply--that nobody is sure even exists. Skepticism is stark because both sides agree that the new report, not yet made public, answers few questions. Despite that, it is expected to include recommendations ranging from numerical limits on the number of squid that can be caught to outright bans in some areas.

“They’re coming up with ideas to make laws, but how do you make laws when you don’t have any data?” asked Don Brockman, a squid fisherman who lives in Laguna Niguel but unloads his boat in Ventura County.

As they organize to fight catch limits, fishermen increasingly are zeroing in on the scientific reports relied on by legislators when approving regulations. Fishermen generally distrust theorizing and what it means to their way of life--and the squid debate is just the latest example, state biologists say.

“Squid is the case du jour,” said Gary Davis, a senior scientist at Channel Islands National Park. “Fishermen are outstanding observers, and they really know the details they see. What they sometimes have trouble seeing is context, which creates the differences of opinion.”

Squid fishing boomed in the last decade as the creature, which has a delicate taste, began showing up on upscale restaurant menus and exports skyrocketed. It is now the highest-volume, highest-dollar fish industry in California, with an all-time high haul of about 125,000 tons last year, up from about 33,000 in 1990.

Exports, much of them to China, make up 80% of the market. In 1997, the year before an El Nino condition brought warm waters that virtually wiped out squid fishing for that year in California, U.S. fishermen exported $91.3 million in squid to foreign markets. That had fallen to $61.2 million in 1999 but is again on an upswing.

As the market expanded, so did the fishing fleet, which led to concerns by state Sen. Byron Sher (D-Stanford) that the squid stock could be permanently depleted. In 1997, the Legislature passed the first law--drafted by Sher--concerning squid fishing, requiring a $2,500 licensing fee.

The $2 million raised over three years paid for the Department of Fish and Game report. But ocean temperatures that climbed during El Nino storms of 1998 caused the number of squid to drop so precipitously that scientists had a hard time tracking them, resulting in a study that didn’t answer as many questions as had been hoped, Department of Fish and Game biologists say.

“El Nino took place in the middle of all this, which cut out a whole year’s worth of data,” said Marija Vojkovich, a senior biologist with department and its point person on squid. “We’re not as far along in the research” as expected.

Fishermen and biologists are divided on how to proceed. Many fishermen want to let the huge hauls continue until it’s proven they hurt the squid population. Conservationists say squid should be protected until their numbers are known.

In the middle are those fishermen who say they wouldn’t mind a crackdown--as long as they get their share.

Old-timers like Neil Guglielmo support limiting fishing by giving permits only to operators who have been catching squid for years.

“Right now there are a lot of boats, and prices are down,” said Guglielmo, a Santa Barbara resident who has specialized in squid for decades. “Things are going to get worse.”

But environmentalists argue that there isn’t enough information on how low squid populations can drop before other species in the food chain are affected. Karen Reyna, coordinator at the Pacific Ocean Conservation Network, said so many animals feed on squid that any dramatic changes could produce a detrimental domino effect.

“We should use the cautionary approach,” she said. “Squid is a very important forage fish. It’s food for a lot of other fish, not just people.”