Humbolt Giant Squid vs. Salmon...Hmmm???...

[Shad*Wizard]

Just caught the end of a television show discussing the Humbolt squid and it's voracious appetite and attacks on many species in our ocean waters...Just wondering if these squid may be having an effect on the salmon numbers?...Googled up the subject and another person on a forum thought that might be happening too...

[Riverdawg]

Im leaning toward NO....

there are alot of other factors effecting the Pacific Coast Salmon fishery.

Weather, Water, Polution, it goes on and on.

Good luck on your search!

~Riverdawg

[Shad*Wizard]

I can just imagine what would happen if a school of these giant squid meet up with a school of salmon out on the ocean...These squid weren't abundant in our waters in years past...Hope the party boat skippers get on these creatures good...Calamari, almost as good as abalone in my book...May have to book a trip or tell Ol' Henry about them...He misses his salmon fishing trips...

[norththird]

Squid are really dangerous preditors of the ocean and I'm sure that they like salmon. Many whales have squid attack marks on them. Sounds like a good possability to me.

[norththird]

nm

[Shad*Wizard]

Hey Norththird, are the party boats catching any giant squid down by Monterey?...

[norththird]

I have not heard of any yet, but I did see a group of boats way out off of Marina state beach yesterday.

[dockboy]

Humbolts and salmon have coexisted for thousands of years together, if not longer. They may indeed eat salmon. But that's been part of the cycle for a very long time, longer than any human pressure from overfishing. The decline in salmon isn't likely from the squid. Sealions, yes, they have benefited immensely from human protection and shoreline structure and have grown in population immensely. But the likely cause of it all is human overfishing (commercial boats from the old days) and other combined factors. Mind you, these fish move up to spawn in age group classes. So all those fish the commercial boats were catching four or five years ago aren't coming back in the numbers they would be if the overfishing hadn't occured. Not bashing on commercial guys, but the lack of limits on what the meat boats could take up until recently is being felt here.

[optichamp]

maybe the real deal is the salmon knew there wasn't much rain last year, so they just didn't bother heading back upriver? It will be interesting to see how big the run is this year.

[bassman99]

it has been proven those giant squid can inhale a 6' blue shark. Also remember those squid are farely new to the west coast. I dont know how old you are but they really havnt been around since the early 70's