Everyone knows that salmon can eat squid, but how about the reverse? Would you believe that squid are eating salmon as far north as Washington state? At least that's the report from fishermen who say squid are taking salmon off their fishing lines. These are not just any squd, they're giant Humboldt squid that can grow to be 6 feet long and weigh more than 100 pounds. Salmon fishermen are catching squid instead of salmon this year, and some are getting concerned.
A state biologist thinks the squid are moving north with the warm El Nino ocean waters, and they're likely to head south again. Global warming may lead to more problems of this type, but it's worth noting that there was a previous attack of the killer squid in the 1930's, so it's not unprecedented. Tweet
2 comments:
It would be interesting to see what kind of a predation rate would be required for squid to be the sole cause of the lower than expected salmon returns in the Fraser River this year.
It wouldn't take very long for a half million Humbolt squid to eat their way through 4 or 5 million adult salmon...
Do the Fraser salmon swim south to grow up? The salmon problems seems worse as you south. Also a sardine fishery, which mainly goes to feed tuna. Maybe taking away the squids main food source part of the problem. Since 1998 about 1,200,000 metric tons have been removed from WA, ORE and CAL waters
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