Search for rojo diablo

By: GARY WARTH - Staff Writer
Escondido explorer argues salmon collapse caused by Humboldt squid | Saturday, March 8, 2008 9:37 PM PST ∞

ESCONDIDO -- As marine biologists scramble to find out why the salmon population off the West Coast has collapsed, one Escondido man is confident he knows the culprit.

The Humboldt squid. Rojo Diablo. The Red Demon.

"These animals are fierce," Scott Cassell of Escondido recently said about the squid, known by marine biologists as Dosidicus gigas. "They can easily amputate your arm."

Cassell, 46, should know. He said a squid dislocated his shoulder while others tried to pull him into the abyss during his first dive among them 14 years ago.

Since then, he has dived with squid about 2,000 times wearing a specially designed protective suit. Besides diving to study the animal for his own interest, Cassell films them for nature shows and documentaries.

His years in the water with the animal has convinced Cassell that the West Coast squid population is booming. He speculates that the animal's increased numbers coincide with a drop in its predators, tuna and sharks, which are commercially hunted.

Cassell isn't alone in his belief. The Pacific Fishery Management Council, which has authority to set restrictions on commercial and sport fishing, identified Humboldt squid as one of 46 possible reasons salmon are disappearing.

Yet it is unclear whether squid have a direct or indirect responsibility for the salmon's decline, or any responsibility at all.

Cassell said he believes the squid are preying on the salmon, although one study showed no evidence of that. Another theory suggests the voracious squid have disrupted the food chain, which is contributing to the salmon's decline.

Why the squid are increasing in numbers also is disputed. While Cassell blames increased fishing of the squid's predators, another theory is that its population naturally waxes and wanes with ocean temperatures and changing conditions.

Everybody studying the ocean, however, seems to agree on at least one thing: There are a lot of Humboldt squid off the coast.

Whether or not he's proven right about the squid's effect on salmon, Cassell said, he hopes the salmon shortfall will help sound the alarm about a sprawling predator population off the coast.

"It's like there's a wildfire under the sea," he said.

Grim forecast

On Feb. 28, the Pacific Fishery Management Council released a report with devastating news for the West Coast salmon industry: The fish's population will be at an all-time low in 2008, projected at only 22 percent of its long-term average.

"This is very bad news for West Coast salmon fishers," Pacific Council Chairman Don Hansen said when the report was released. "The word 'disaster' comes immediately to mind, and I mean a disaster much worse than the Klamath fishery disaster of 2006."

In 2006, several West Coast fisheries were restricted because of a severe drop in population of salmon hatched in the Klamath River.

The new report showed a drastic drop in the ocean population of chinook salmon from California's Central Valley, which encompasses major rivers where salmon breed.

The problem is affecting hatchery and naturally produced fish, according to the report, which lists 46 possible reasons for the salmon's population drop. Among the reasons listed were disease, bad food, droughts, floods, pollution, bridge construction, sea lions and the Humboldt squid.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council meets next week, with talks about salmon scheduled to begin Tuesday.

Fishing restrictions could cause customers to pay more for salmon, and millions of dollars could be at stake for the commercial and recreational fishing industry.

In California and Oregon, salmon fishing had an average economic value of $103 million a year between 1979 and 2000, and $61 million annually from 2001 to 2005, according to the council report.

The squid man

If the world of fiction were to create Scott Cassell, his character would be dismissed as too improbable. A combat medic and pilot who once landed a crippled helicopter on Interstate 805, Cassell is an Army veteran who worked in counter-terrorism and special operations, a diver, a documentary maker and a trapeze artist.

But more than anything, he likes to talk about, film and study Humboldt squid, which he often refers to as "magnificent creatures."

He also calls them the most alienlike animal on earth. The squid, which Cassell said can grow to 9 feet in length, have three hearts, clear blood and the ability to change colors in pulsating bursts from white to red. They can swim 20 miles an hour, have parrotlike beaks that can cut through bone and 10 powerful arms covered with tentacles lined with needle-sharp teeth.

"They'll eat everything from krill to animals bigger than themselves," Cassell said. "Every animal they encounter is potentially prey."

Cassell said he first became interested in the squid while sitting around a campfire in Mexico with some fishermen who told a tale of a friend who had been pulled overboard and killed by a rojo diablo. After his own encounters with the squid, Cassell said he has no reason to doubt their story.

Conflicting theories

Cassell claims fishermen are pulling up squid where there used to be salmon; when they do find salmon, the fish often are scarred by marks indicative of squid attacks.

John Field, a fishery biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Santa Cruz, disagrees.

"I think salmon are going to swim faster than squid," he said last week, adding that there is little overlap between where adult salmon and squid are found. As for salmon with scars, Field suggested they were attacked by squid only after they were hooked, which left them vulnerable.

While Cassell said he has heard of fishermen who found an entire salmon inside a squid, Field said a study that examined the contents of squid stomachs found no such thing.

"In these 700 to 800 stomachs, I've seen a lot of things, but never a salmon," he said.

Chuck Tracy, salmon staff officer with the Pacific Fishery Management Council, said squid may have an indirect effect on the salmon.

"They're predators," he said. "Whether they're eating salmon or eating the fish that salmon eat, we don't know. But there does seem to be a correlation that when they appear, the salmon appear to do poorly."

Worldwide exploration

Cassell plans to launch an expedition this year exploring the ocean's top 1,000 feet. Such an expedition was the dream of his mentor, Andreas Rechnitzer, who led a record-setting 35,800-foot dive in 1960 to the bottom of the Marianas Trench in a bathyscaph. A San Diego resident, Rechnitzer passed away in 2005.

In about two months, Cassell said, a proof-of-concept submarine will be ready to go into the water to begin demonstrations for investors. He is seeking to raise $2.5 million for the submarine and expedition.

The aim for his Undersea Voyager Project will be a five-year expedition covering 27,000 miles to collect information about ocean conditions, using devices attached to a 1,000-foot tether between the submarine and an escort boat.

He also, of course, plans to study squid during the expedition.

Part of the study will be similar to one he hopes to do soon off Bodega Bay north of San Francisco for the Discovery Channel, using equipment from Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Finding egg masses and larva or pupa will be evidence that Humboldts have made the jump from just occurring in an area to taking up residency.

"If they're here breeding, we have a major problem," he said.

Contact staff writer Gary Warth at (760) 740-5410 or gwarth@nctimes.com.

First name only. Comments including last names, contact addresses, e-mail addresses or phone numbers will be deleted. Attempts to misrepresent your identity or impersonate any person will not be approved. All comments are screened before they appear online, so please keep them brief. Comments reflect the views of those commenting and not necessarily those of the North County Times or its staff writers. Click here to view additional comment policies.