IT IS a ferocious 2-metre-long predator that hunts in packs, and it’s lurking by a beach near you – if you happen to live on California’s central coast, where the Humboldt squid has recently taken up residence.
Historically, (Dosidicus gigas) only ride the warm ocean currents north from the tropical waters off Central America and Mexico to California during El Niño events. Once there they feast on Pacific hake before returning to the tropics once the warm period ends.
Over the past 16 years, however, surveys of Monterey Bay’s deep waters revealed that the squid have become permanent residents ().
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This is because ocean temperatures are climbing, making the Californian waters more suitable for the squid, say Bruce Robison of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Moss Landing and Louis Zeidberg of Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, both in California, who conducted the surveys. They say overfishing of tuna has allowed squid populations to climb too, since tuna not only prey on young squid but also compete in the hunt for the smaller fish preferred by squid. “There has been a big change in the cast of characters out there,” says Robison.
