Monday June 9, 2025
San Francisco Chronicle —
From the cockpit of his 63-foot fishing boat in Monterey Bay, Porter McHenry is on the hunt for what might be the last lucrative catch in California — though competitors and tariffs are closing in on his profit.
To spot his prey, he scrutinizes the behavior of seabirds, the patterns on his sonar screens and especially the tell-tale movements of the boats around him. His tiny target: California market squid, sometimes called Monterey squid, each 6 inches and 10 arms of opalescent white and purple.
With salmon season closed for three years in a row and Dungeness crab season dramatically shortened, squid is now the only species in the state that still holds the promise of a massive payday for struggling fishermen. “A good crab season, you could probably gross $3… $400,000,” said McHenry. “Squid here, you could gross well over a million.”
But when squid season opened in late April, there was no mad dash for the first catch. Instead, with Chinese tariffs threatening the price, a standoff ensued. Fishermen refused to fish, and their local processors, who buy and freeze their catch for transport, refused to offer a high price in an industry reliant on exports.