Illex illecebrosus, northern short-finned squid

Short-finned squid (Illex illecebrosus) eggs and paralarvae are distributed by the Gulf Stream at least from the Florida Straits to oceanic waters south of Newfoundland, with older stages extending inshore and further north, as far as the southern Labrador shelf. Adults feed in the north and migrate south to spawn. Fishery records only go back to 1880, but jigging for cod bait in Newfoundland may have been among the first occupations for Europeans in North America. For a decade starting in 1975, this squid was the target of an offshore trawl fishery that returned nearly a million tons before collapsing, and extensive field and laboratory research during this period made it one of the best characterized ommastrephid species. This chapter includes re-analyses of these data based on new age estimates. Present efforts, focused on monitoring a slow recovery from the longest series of recruitment failures on record, represent a valuable case study of squid recruitment processes.