How a Squid-Related Squabble Was Resolved

Joseph Mulkey of Reedsport, Oregon was so eager to follow his father into the commercial fishing business that he was tempted to drop out of high school.

Joseph Mulkey, Pacific Challenger Fisheries - Reedsport, Oregon: “The only reason I finished high school is my mom told me that if I didn’t graduate, I would never get the opportunity to run the boat.”

He did graduate and, after years on the crew, he eventually became captain of the family’s 68-foot fishing boat, known as the Pearl J. This fall, he finished building a 57-foot boat of his own. But Mulkey’s all-in commitment to commercial fishing came with concerns about how the industry sometimes operated.

Joseph Mulkey, Pacific Challenger Fisheries - Reedsport, Oregon: “Sadly, we are on somewhat of a decline. I feel that our industry is too focused on volume as opposed to quality. When you look at other fisheries in the world - Norway and European fisheries - they focus on very high quality and much lower volumes than we do.”

That concern about quantity over quality became especially relevant when market squid fishing off Oregon’s coast began drawing serious interest from other West Coast commercial crews. Troy Buell, the State Fishery Management Program Leader for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, helps regulate certain ocean species fished within three miles of the state’s coast.

Troy Buell, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife - Newport, Oregon: “This fishery started in 2016 when we saw about 2.7 million pounds of squid landed, which was more than we'd ever seen historically. And we have records going back to the early 80s showing that there was some squid fishing happening but not to that degree.”

A marine heat wave - or area of usually warm ocean water - from 2013 to 2016 is believed to have brought more market squid north to Oregon. California fishing crews wanted to follow them.

Troy Buell, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife - Newport, Oregon: “We started getting questions from some of those fishermen about what would be required to fish market squid in Oregon, as far as, you know, what permits and licenses they would need to have.”

For Mulkey, the squid boom offered a chance to try purse seining - a net-based fishing method that uses a drawstring-type rope at the bottom to gather the catch. Around 2018, Mulkey convinced his family to invest $100,000 in used nets and gear for a test run.

The test succeeded, and the family upgraded their equipment. Market squid, known as calamari when served, are usually caught only at night in the fall - they’re drawn to lights just like moths. Some fishing operations used a separate light boat that would attract the squid while a catcher boat set nets around them. Even though he was using this strategy himself, Mulkey began to worry that it was too effective.

Joseph Mulkey, Pacific Challenger Fisheries - Reedsport, Oregon: “A lot of times, as soon as you are done with the set that you just made - pumping those squid on the boat - you can immediately go back and set again. It’s extremely efficient. And our fishery here in Oregon is not a big enough fishery to sustain that much efficiency. And so there were a few of us that felt we needed to get rid of the light boats.”

By 2019, nearly 40 boats were working in the Oregon squid fishery, a term that, in this case, refers to all the crews fishing for the same regulated species.

Joseph Mulkey, Pacific Challenger Fisheries - Reedsport, Oregon: “There was always a fishery up off of Florence….And even without light boats, we’re very efficient and, with all of those boats participating, I've never caught a squid in that area since then. And so I think we kind of demolished that run.”

Mulkey called state fisheries managers with his concerns and found himself in the unusual position of asking for a few new regulations over his own livelihood. The state, however, already had a safeguard in place.

Troy Buell, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife - Newport, Oregon: “We had what we call a harvest guideline set: 4.5 million pounds of squid landed. And so the requirement that if we ever landed that much squid into Oregon, though, is that we held a public meeting to be able to evaluate the fishery.”

Unlike long-lived species like rockfish or whales that take years to mature, market squid are a bit easier to protect as they reproduce rapidly and live less than a year. The state has a goal of fishermen leaving 30% of the squids’ eggs on the ocean floor to protect the species’ future.

Troy Buell, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife - Newport, Oregon: “That is rather hard to measure. And so we did put in a regulation that closes the fishery two days a week on the weekends, and that is a proxy for allowing the squid to spawn, you know, 30% of what they would have been able to do without any fishing.”

But it was the banning of separate light boats - after contentious debate - that angered some fishing crews.

Troy Buell, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife - Newport, Oregon: “I took a lot of calls about the light boat issue, both from people that, you know, felt that they weren't necessary and were creating kind of an unfair playing field for people that they weren't using, or didn't have them, to people that, you know, had invested in building light boats and were using them in the fishery. So, yeah, lots of calls. It was pretty contentious.”

For Mulkey, advocating for restrictions cost him some friendships.

Joseph Mulkey, Pacific Challenger Fisheries - Reedsport, Oregon: “Particularly with the light boats, I have some people that I used to call friends that are not friends anymore.”

After the regulations concerning separate light boats took effect, which also lined up with a swing back to cooler ocean conditions, Mulkey said participation dropped rapidly from 40 boats to four or five. The peak in 2020 brought 10 million pounds of market squid - or $6 million worth - into Oregon’s ports. In recent years, the catch has totaled closer to 1 to 1.5 million pounds.

Troy Buell, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife - Newport, Oregon: “That's not a huge amount of money…But it's not nothing. And it is significant for, you know, individual operators and even some of the ports.”

Both men feel the state is now better positioned to balance economic and ecological considerations when the next marine heat wave hits, bringing along thousands of tiny tentacled mollusks.

Joseph Mulkey, Pacific Challenger Fisheries - Reedsport, Oregon: “I want to do this the rest of my life. And if my kids want to do it, I want them to be able to do it. And the stocks have to be there for us to do it.”

By Colleen Bradford Krantz, colleen.krantz@iowapbs.org