There is a very informative squid fishing video on the California Seafood Council website. [url="http://ca-seafood.ucdavis.edu/squid/"]http://ca-seafood.ucdavis.edu/squid/[/url]
The movie outlines gives a nice overview of the californian squid fishery. The movie file is unfortunately very large. It is Approx 36 Mb which would take several hours to download over a slow internet connection. The movie is in the [url="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/"]QuickTime[/url] movie format.
Here is a direct link to the movie. I suggest you right click and use "Save Target As..." to save the file to your computer before viewing it.
[url="http://ca-seafood.ucdavis.edu/squid/SquidMovie.mov"]http://ca-seafood.ucdavis.edu/squid/SquidMovie.mov[/url]
For those who can't acess the file due to its size, here is a brief summary of the dialogue in the movie (not the exact words but you will get the idea).
MOVIE SUMMARY
This movie gives an overview of the california commercial squid fishery.
The fishery is the largest in the Unites States.
The fishery began in 1863, established by Chinese immigrants in the port of Monterey, California.
Italian immigrants also played an important role by introducing lampara nets at the turn of the 20th century.
Most squid fishing occurs at night or in the early morning hours. During the squid season the squid congregate in the shallows.
The squid are attracted to the surface with bright lights.
They then encircle the squid with purse seine or lamapara nets (also called round haul nets).
In the Monterey bay area, squid are caught from April to October. In Southern California the season is from October to April. This makes the fishery an all-year proposition.
The fisherman use electronic fish finders to find the squid. When the squid are found the lights are turned on and then they wait for the squid to surface. The ship will need a crew of about 6 people to net the squid. One crew member will operate a small boat which will keep the end of the net in place. The fishing boat then quickly encircles the squid with the net. Then the net is drawn closed around the squid use a large deck winch. The squid is then concentrated in a small section of the net. The squid are then transferred to the hold.
Fishing occurs close to land and the squid are quickly delivered (in chilled ice water) to ensure a top quality product. The squid are pumped from the boat hold into ice chilled tanks and then trucked to the processing building.
The catch is then quickly packed into 1 and 3 pound boxes for retail sale and 5lb boxes for market and restaurant use and 11 and 25 pound blocks for export. Boxed squid are immeditately placed in freezing tunnels and frozen to -20 to -40 F. About 70% of the catch is exported. Much of the product goes to China. Demand in the Unites States is however increasing.
The movie outlines gives a nice overview of the californian squid fishery. The movie file is unfortunately very large. It is Approx 36 Mb which would take several hours to download over a slow internet connection. The movie is in the [url="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/"]QuickTime[/url] movie format.
Here is a direct link to the movie. I suggest you right click and use "Save Target As..." to save the file to your computer before viewing it.
[url="http://ca-seafood.ucdavis.edu/squid/SquidMovie.mov"]http://ca-seafood.ucdavis.edu/squid/SquidMovie.mov[/url]
For those who can't acess the file due to its size, here is a brief summary of the dialogue in the movie (not the exact words but you will get the idea).
MOVIE SUMMARY
This movie gives an overview of the california commercial squid fishery.
The fishery is the largest in the Unites States.
The fishery began in 1863, established by Chinese immigrants in the port of Monterey, California.
Italian immigrants also played an important role by introducing lampara nets at the turn of the 20th century.
Most squid fishing occurs at night or in the early morning hours. During the squid season the squid congregate in the shallows.
The squid are attracted to the surface with bright lights.
They then encircle the squid with purse seine or lamapara nets (also called round haul nets).
In the Monterey bay area, squid are caught from April to October. In Southern California the season is from October to April. This makes the fishery an all-year proposition.
The fisherman use electronic fish finders to find the squid. When the squid are found the lights are turned on and then they wait for the squid to surface. The ship will need a crew of about 6 people to net the squid. One crew member will operate a small boat which will keep the end of the net in place. The fishing boat then quickly encircles the squid with the net. Then the net is drawn closed around the squid use a large deck winch. The squid is then concentrated in a small section of the net. The squid are then transferred to the hold.
Fishing occurs close to land and the squid are quickly delivered (in chilled ice water) to ensure a top quality product. The squid are pumped from the boat hold into ice chilled tanks and then trucked to the processing building.
The catch is then quickly packed into 1 and 3 pound boxes for retail sale and 5lb boxes for market and restaurant use and 11 and 25 pound blocks for export. Boxed squid are immeditately placed in freezing tunnels and frozen to -20 to -40 F. About 70% of the catch is exported. Much of the product goes to China. Demand in the Unites States is however increasing.