Chef Chris Cosentino holds a fresh-caught giant Humboldt squid. Photo by Brown Cannon III

 

Giant squid have moved to warmer Pacific waters, threatening native fish. What to do? Try a tasty tentacled meal.

by Adam Fisher 

Chris Cosentino and Manfred Wrembel stand on the rocking stern of the Huli Cat, a 53-foot fishing charter. Cosentino is back after a week away from his San Francisco restaurant, Incanto, filming the second season of his now canceled reality show, Chefs vs. City. He’s jet-lagged and squirrelly, and his bleached-blond faux-hawk, normally moussed to attention, has gone limp. Wrembel, his sous-chef, briefs Cosentino on what has been happening at their restaurant, Incanto, while he was gone. “Last night was the chicken livers,” Wrembel reports, between drags on a Marlboro. “They came out really good.”   

The chefs are headed out to the open ocean on a hunt for the giant Humboldt squid. Ten years ago, the beasts were confined to Mexico’s west coast, but ocean waters warmed by climate change are believed to have lured them north. Here, off the Northern California coast, the Humboldt have found a whole ocean largely fished out of predators like bluefin tuna and salmon. Humboldt spawn quickly and eat voraciously. By some estimates, there are now tens of millions of them in the northern Pacific, all intent on devouring some of the fishing industry’s smaller traditional catch, like hake and anchovies. It’s a big problem that moves up the food chain and could impact greater varieties of seafood.

“Squid is now the dominant species in the Pacific,” Cosentino says. “The waters have changed.” 

To him, assigning blame — to global warming or unsustainable fishing practices  — seems beside the point.  

“The question is,” Cosentino says of the big squid, “what do we do to stop them?” He thinks the answer is obvious: “We eat them!”

—