The Humboldt squid that invaded West End waters earlier this month should be swimming south by Oct. 1, a state Department of Fish and Wildlife marine ecosystem manager said.
After the exodus begins then, “I don’t think the squid will be here a month from now” because of cooling temperatures, Greg Bargmann said Wednesday.
The presence of the creatures, which can grow to six feet long and weigh up to 70 pounds, in large numbers this summer in the western Strait of Juan de Fuca and off the Pacific coast has dismayed commercial fishermen and puzzled scientists.
The voracious hunters typically inhabit the waters of the Gulf of California down to the southern tip of South America.
They have swarmed north seasonally for the last several years, since 2003 in Southern California and since 2004 in Washington state.
Last week, West End observers reported hundreds apparently beaching themselves.
This week, dozens of Humboldt squid washed up dead on the central Oregon coast near Heceta Head, near the coastal community of Florence.
Russ Vetter, director of NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, Calif., has called the northern migration of the squid “an invasion all the way up and down the West Coast.”
Before this month, however, West End observers said they had not seen the jumbo squid in the Strait.
Researchers may have a better idea of when the squid have had enough of Washington’s coastal waters after 24 were tagged near Westport on Tuesday.
Bargmann said the squid’s movements will be monitored with radio tags for up to eight months.
“We will get some idea if they are moving,” if they are moving into the Puget Sound or south,” he said.
Possible explanations of the squid migration have included warming ocean temperatures and over fishing of squid predators such as tuna and swordfish.
Sperm whales and orcas also eat squid, Vetter said.
Now that summer is officially over, some researchers expect cooling water temperature to push them back south soon.
If not, they should die off in the winter.
Squid are short-lived, “like insects,” said Ken Baltz, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration oceanographer in Santa Cruz, Calif., living at most 1 ½ years.
Squid eating salmon
But that may not mean much to commercial fishermen who blame low salmon catches this year on the predators, which eat constantly, preferring sardines, hake and anchovies but welcoming any meal, including salmon.
Fisherman Gary Willmett of Neah Bay said he has lost $2,000 a week since June because the predators have been feasting on the salmon population, even while the fish are on his hooks.
He has lost money this year, he said, despite the ton of squid he was able to sell after unintentionally catching them while trolling for salmon.
Willmett said his accidental catch paid him about $1,500.
“I have to fill the boat several times [with squid] to just break even,” he said.
If the squid, known for their seemingly unending appetite, return next year, Willmett doesn’t think there will be much salmon to catch.
While there are no official numbers on the local squid population, they were still being reported in large numbers on Tuesday.
‘Lots out there’
“There are lots of squid out there,” Bargmann said, “at least from Wesport all the way to the Canadian border.”
In Sekiu, which appears to be about the farthest east the cephalopods have traveled in the Strait, the squid have been seen this week swimming near docks at night and lying dead on the beach.
Donalynn Olson, of Olson’s Resort in Sekiu, said she believes they are already on the move out of the area.
“We had a lot for a couple of days [last week],” she said.
“Our waters have cooled off” since.
But Chris Mohr, owner of the nearby Van Riper’s Resort, said Wednesday that he is still seeing the squid swim near his resort at night and evidence of them beaching themselves over the last few days.
Hundreds of squid were found to have beached themselves on the coast last week, another behavior that experts can’t fully explain, but such reports have become rare since.
Cooling water temperatures and lower salinity levels near freshwater sources have both been blamed.
“In low tide it looks like a graveyard out there,” Mohr said.
“It’s not a pretty site.”
Mohr said that two families from Ellensburg who were staying at his resort last week used gaff hooks to catch between 200 and 300 pounds of squid in shallow waters.
“It was quite a display when they were all done,” he said.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
