Jumbo squid makes new home in Northwest

By Les Blumenthal | McClatchy Newspapers • Published April 27, 2008

They aren't your normal calamari. But the jumbo squid now lurking off the Northwest coast could threaten salmon runs and signal yet another change in the oceans brought on by global warming.

The squid, which can reach seven feet long and weigh up to 110 pounds, are aggressive, thought to hunt in packs and can move at speeds of up to 15 mph. In Mexico, they're known as diablos rojos, or red devils. They reportedly will attack divers when they feel threatened.

No one knows exactly why they started appearing in increasing numbers off Washington state and Oregon, or how many of them there are, but scientists and commercial fishermen have found them in their nets every year since 2004. One ship trawling for Pacific hake captured an estimated 50 tons of the squid in one net haul.

Though they usually prefer deep water, between 1,000 and 1,500 squid washed up on the Long Beach Peninsula in the fall of 2004.

"This is a new phenomenon," said Jason Phillips, a faculty research assistant at Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. A briefing paper from the science center suggested that the jumbo squid might be "well established" in the Northwest.

Canadian fisheries officials said the jumbo squid were first seen in Northwest waters in the early 1950s.

"But that was a rare event," said Ken Cooke, the head of applied technology for the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Nanaimo, British Columbia. "It's not rare anymore. They were always thought to be a transient visitor; now it appears they are resident."

Global warming, low-oxygen water

Also known as the Humboldt squid, they've typically been found off the coasts of Mexico, Central America and Peru. Near the town of Santa Rosalia, Mexico, several years ago, an estimated 10 million squid were living in a 25-square-mile area.

In the late 1990s, they appeared in increasing numbers off the central California coast around Monterey Bay. By 2005, jumbo squid were found as far north as Sitka, Alaska.