Post by LSDeep on Mar 2, 2006 11:41:23 GMT -5
From beginning to end, this fish's existence is perilous -- and short
By KAREN RAVN
Herald Staff Writer
Just being a squid can be hazardous to your health.
Most will probably live less than a year. They'll mate, spawn and die -- and that's if everything goes swimmingly.
Which is a whale of a big if.
For one thing, a whale might very well gobble them up first.
"A whale will eat a ton of squid in a day," said Sal Tringali, president of Monterey Fish Co.
They're also a popular entree for many fish and birds, as well as other ocean mammals -- not to mention people.
Besides, even when squid are raised in a lab -- and not destined to be dined on -- only about 1 percent of hatchlings survive to adulthood, said Louis Zeidberg, a researcher at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station.
And then there's Mother Nature to worry about. El NiƱo years, for example, are hard going.
In other words, for squid, it's a short life and a scary one.
As a species, their best defense seems to be a good offense. When they manage to live long enough to spawn, they do so in huge numbers.
"Marine biologists call them bugs," Tringali said.
The average female squid has the potential to spawn nearly 4,000 eggs, although if she ends up spawning 3,000, she's doing very well for herself.
In managing the squid fishing business, the California Department of Fish and Game wants to make sure that enough squid keep hatching to make up for the ones that keep dying.
This can be tricky.
For one thing, fishers can only fish for squid when they're spawning because that's the only time they're easy to find. And they can't wait for them to finish spawning because spawning in a particular area goes on for months. As some squid spawn and die off -- in a matter of days -- new ones arrive and then spawn and die off themselves.
So fishers are bound to catch some squid before they've spawned at all. On the other hand, they should also catch some that have already spawned. The hope is that this will average out.
How can the department tell if it does?
It would be easier if they could count squid. But until now, nobody has found a good way to do that.
It is possible, of course, to keep track of how many squid are caught from year to year and to infer from that how big the population was from year to year. But once the fish have already been caught, it's too late to decide that the population was down in a particular year, so maybe the catch limit should have been down, too.
Still, the Department of Fish and Game has devised a management plan based on what it's possible to do now, although one important provision might sound impossible at first.
This is the provision that before they're caught, female squid should have spawned at least 30 percent of their eggs.
Fortunately, as a squid spawns, her body changes measurably. And it's possible to estimate how many of her eggs are gone according to how much her body has changed.
So the department takes random samples of the squid that are caught, examines them to see what percentage of their eggs have been spawned and calculates the average.
The first year of this plan is just coming to an end, so the department isn't sure yet how well it's working. But they're prepared to keep modifying the plan if necessary.
"It's a yin and yang kind of process," said Dale Sweetnam, a senior marine biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game. "We want to allow enough fishing to make a viable fishery, but also a sustainable one. We want to allow a fisherman to keep his livelihood through time, instead of just this year."
or kravn@montereyherald.com.
By KAREN RAVN
Herald Staff Writer
Just being a squid can be hazardous to your health.
Most will probably live less than a year. They'll mate, spawn and die -- and that's if everything goes swimmingly.
Which is a whale of a big if.
For one thing, a whale might very well gobble them up first.
"A whale will eat a ton of squid in a day," said Sal Tringali, president of Monterey Fish Co.
They're also a popular entree for many fish and birds, as well as other ocean mammals -- not to mention people.
Besides, even when squid are raised in a lab -- and not destined to be dined on -- only about 1 percent of hatchlings survive to adulthood, said Louis Zeidberg, a researcher at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station.
And then there's Mother Nature to worry about. El NiƱo years, for example, are hard going.
In other words, for squid, it's a short life and a scary one.
As a species, their best defense seems to be a good offense. When they manage to live long enough to spawn, they do so in huge numbers.
"Marine biologists call them bugs," Tringali said.
The average female squid has the potential to spawn nearly 4,000 eggs, although if she ends up spawning 3,000, she's doing very well for herself.
In managing the squid fishing business, the California Department of Fish and Game wants to make sure that enough squid keep hatching to make up for the ones that keep dying.
This can be tricky.
For one thing, fishers can only fish for squid when they're spawning because that's the only time they're easy to find. And they can't wait for them to finish spawning because spawning in a particular area goes on for months. As some squid spawn and die off -- in a matter of days -- new ones arrive and then spawn and die off themselves.
So fishers are bound to catch some squid before they've spawned at all. On the other hand, they should also catch some that have already spawned. The hope is that this will average out.
How can the department tell if it does?
It would be easier if they could count squid. But until now, nobody has found a good way to do that.
It is possible, of course, to keep track of how many squid are caught from year to year and to infer from that how big the population was from year to year. But once the fish have already been caught, it's too late to decide that the population was down in a particular year, so maybe the catch limit should have been down, too.
Still, the Department of Fish and Game has devised a management plan based on what it's possible to do now, although one important provision might sound impossible at first.
This is the provision that before they're caught, female squid should have spawned at least 30 percent of their eggs.
Fortunately, as a squid spawns, her body changes measurably. And it's possible to estimate how many of her eggs are gone according to how much her body has changed.
So the department takes random samples of the squid that are caught, examines them to see what percentage of their eggs have been spawned and calculates the average.
The first year of this plan is just coming to an end, so the department isn't sure yet how well it's working. But they're prepared to keep modifying the plan if necessary.
"It's a yin and yang kind of process," said Dale Sweetnam, a senior marine biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game. "We want to allow enough fishing to make a viable fishery, but also a sustainable one. We want to allow a fisherman to keep his livelihood through time, instead of just this year."
or kravn@montereyherald.com.