Juneau charter operator Richard Yamada caught a magister squid in southern Lynn Canal on Aug. 29, 2020, using a jig, which he displayed in his other hand.
A Juneau-based fishing charter and lodge owner has a hunch that a viable commercial squid fishery could exist in Southeast.
Richard Yamada, who's been operating fishing charters for 40 years, has been looking for ways to reduce the damage to his business as king salmon numbers decline. He speculates that an influx of magister squid in the northern Inside Passage might be one factor affecting salmon survival.
About 15 years ago. while fishing for rockfish, he and his clients caught a magister squid.
"We didn't even know what the species was," Yamada said. "We never caught any more so we didn't really have any interest in catching them. About five or six years ago, we went on an evening trip and threw some squid jigs over the side of the boat. We caught over 100 squid in about two or three hours. We did it another couple times in different spots and were just as successful."
He soon added squid to his list of charter fishing options. Also known as the "red squid," they can average five pounds.
He contacted a retired Alaska Department of Fish and Game coho researcher based out of Juneau, Leon Shaul, and the pair wondered if the squid could be eating juvenile salmon that are rearing in Southeast waters. Shaul said salmon declines also coincided with adult herring declines that other biologists were tracking.
"It's pointing to a predator," Shaul said. "Increased mortality of adult herring in inside waters across all age classes, even while their body condition factor remains high, is consistent with a predator. Across the board these inside stocks have dropped off. Two herring stocks that were still doing well were in Sitka and Craig/Klawock, which are both on the outer coast, not in (the magister squids') primary area."
Shaul said the warm waters associated with "the blob," warming Pacific Ocean waters, could be a factor for an increased population of magister squid, which were already native to the region, but more evident farther south near Ketchikan, where a commercial fishery was attempted in 2011.
"The initial warming phase started in the summer of 2014," Shaul said. "It's just a hypothesis, but it was within a year of the beginning of the blob that survival of both coho and chinook salmon smolts declined for inside stocks, similar to inside herring, and I started hearing more and more about squid, more and more people catching them up here. I suspect that the marine heat wave may have caused a jump in the squid population."
In 2019, a dead sperm whale washed up in Lynn Canal. A necropsy found that the whale, uncommon in inside waters, had been foraging on magister squid.
Yamada said if their hypothesis is correct, a commercial fishery would not only benefit fishermen hoping to diversify, but also potentially cut back on the decline in salmon.
"We see low king salmon returns in our area," Yamada said. "Solving that issue would help our sport fishery. I have no interest in commercially harvesting the squid. The long-term effect is it would help my king salmon access."
Yamada, also president of the Alaska Charter Association and a member of the International Pacific Halibut Commission, wrote a proposal to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association to determine the feasibility of establishing a squid fishery. It was turned down this month, but he said he will continue his quest. He plans to apply for a special state permit that would allow him to catch 1,500 pounds of squid. Before he can do that, he needs more data about the animals that most biologists know little about.
"These species have been in Alaska waters for a long time. We just don't have any record of their appearance in the inside waters," Yamada said. "We're seeing them in our halibut and in black cod. There's something happening and I'm curious. I've always been a scientist at heart."
Among the goals of the research, which if approved wouldn't begin until summer 2023, is to determine what volume of squid needs to be harvested and at what price to create a viable fishery; what equipment could best be used to find schools of squid; and to field test commercial squid gear.
He's also taken the squid to Juneau chefs to gauge interest in their marketability as a high-end seafood product.
Yamada is also seeking funding and research assistance from the University of Alaska to learn more about the squids' life cycle, along with a grant to complete DNA studies that will help researchers understand what the squid are eating.
Shaul said very little is known about the squid other than they have a short life cycle, probably two years, and the populations can shift very quickly.
The recent La Nina pattern has brought a cooling trend and Shaul said the ephemeral nature of squid in general is such they could decrease again by the time biologists learn more about them.
"We could get a fishery going and get it all approved and then have the squid disappear. That's just the way they are," Shaul said. "They have a short life cycle, a high reproductive rate and a strong response to environmental conditions. But, last I've heard, people were still catching quite a few and have been for quite some time."
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