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My name is Richard Yamada and I have been a Southeast Alaska Lodge owner for over 40 years. I'm currently involved in fisheries research and management. I am a US International Pacific Halibut Commissioner and sit on the Department of Commerce, Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee. I am also on the boards of the Southeast Alaska Guides Organization and the Alaska Charter Association, Currently I'm working with the University of Alaska Southeast gathering data on the life history of magister squid in our area and with the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation of Rhode Island researching the feasibility potential use of industrial squid jigging machines in US fisheries.
I got interested in squid about five years ago when a friend of mine in Petersburg sent me some pictures of squid they were catching for halibut bait. I thought I'd give it a try in our area just outside of Juneau. Low and behold I found squid to be abundant everywhere in the deep waters of Southern Lynn Canal. A local biologist showed me data of recent declines in at-sea survival of juvenile salmon in the inside waters of Southeast Alaska with no real explanation for this. Having read that warm water fish species may be migrating to warming waters of Alaska due to climate change and that squid especially like low oxygen and acidic waters that Alaska has recently been experiencing, the question begged to to be asked are the two related? Is an increasing population of squid having an impact on our delicate ecosystem? Not only salmon, but what about herring and pollock? So began my search for answers.
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