Unidentified floating objects are squid boats
On Sunday, these lighted boats appeared off the coast of San Clemente, harvesting squid to be marketed as calamari. (FRED SWEGLES, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER)
Lighted vessels seen off Laguna Beach recently and now off San Clemente are catching ‘market squid’ that will end up as calamari.
By FRED SWEGLES / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
If you’ve seen the light, and it was off the coast the past few nights, chances are it was from a fleet of commercial boats harvesting squid.
They are known as “light boats,” and they use floodlights to attract squid, which a companion boat then gathers into a net.
They aren’t a new phenomenon, but anytime they show up off the coast, residents wonder what they are. Ken Nielsen, a longtime commercial fisherman and coastal researcher, says the boats were off Laguna Beach for two weeks and now are off San Clemente.
The squid they are netting are known as “market squid,” Nielsen said. They’re 8 to 12 inches long – not the same as several hundred jumbo squid that washed ashore in September. Those are known as Humboldt squid.
Read the rest of the story from the Orange County Resister.