Dec 18 2010

Squid fishery has banner year; season closes early

By Zeke Barlow

December 15, 2010

The hard part for the Ventura County squid fishery this year wasn’t catching the squid – it was catching too many.

“The biggest challenge is not catching too much at once,” said Joe Cappuccio, president of Del Mar Seafoods. There were so many squid swimming off Ventura County’s coast this year that when his boats would set their nets around a school, they had to make sure they didn’t get too many and risk overloading the boats.

This was the best year for squid fishermen in more than a decade, but it also marks the first time the state’s squid fleet met the cap that California Department of Fish and Game imposed in 2004. On Friday, the fishery will meet the limit of 118,000 tons of squid caught in the state. The squid fishing season will close, reopening in April.

“This has been an amazing year,” said Diane Pleschner-Steele, with the industry group California Wetfish Producers Association.

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