Today’s Sardine. This is a “Market Squid,” about 10 inches long, laying her eggs on the sandy floor of Monterey Bay. Squid fishing in Monterey was pioneered, perhaps even invented, by Chinese living on Point Alones, the current site of Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station. The Chinese used small, oar powered wooden boats and netted squid attracted to pine pitch torches. Today, diesel boats use halogen lights and winch netted squid aboard by the ton.

Can the squid population survive in the long term as so many of them are taken from their spawning ground? For that matter, how many squid are out there, and are their numbers growing or shrinking. Nobody knows the answers to these questions, but the squid boats usually come home full... so far.

Photo No. 249U07 ©1994 Marc Shargel
Photographed at 1/2 mi off Monterey Bay Aquarium

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