November 12, 2021 — Oregon’s crabbing industry is known as the state’s most lucrative in the fishing market, but another food from the sea is thriving off the coast: squid.
In 2014, about 1,000 pounds of squid were caught by Oregon-based commercial fishers. Last year saw a huge jump — the haul was more than 10 million pounds.
Josh Whaley, who has been fishing for squid since 2019, told OPB he started after encouragement from the market. He and his team fish for an Astoria company called Da Yang Seafood, which had been buying squid from other fishermen.
“We felt very comfortable that we would be able to sell them because the processors had a high demand for them. The fish buyers out there are very encouraged about squid because it’s a fairly low labor and fairly easy to process product on their end,” Whaley said.