The Hsiang Fa No. 8, a 252-foot Taiwanese squid jigger, uses bright lights as a dinner bell for Argentine shortfin squid during the lucrative four-month season around the Falkland Islands. A string of 3,000-watt bulbs line the rails, while another set are sunk hundreds of meters below the ship to draw plankton and feeding squid within range of more than one hundred jig lines that are dropped off metal catwalks around the vessel. On a good day, the ship can haul in nearly 66 tons of future calamari. The squid are flash-frozen below deck shortly after they are brought aboard, and then swapped at sea for fuel and supplies from a tender vessel, allowing the Hsiang Fa No. 8 to spend six months or more at sea without ever coming ashore. The squid, which mass around plankton-rich upwellings along South America’s continental shelf, are among the most heavily fished species in the ocean, with nearly a thousand squid ships hauling in up to a million tons each year. Some, like the Hsiang FA No. 8, buy licenses from the Falklands and Argentina, but an estimated six hundred vessels operate in international waters completely unregulated. During the season their lights are so bright at night the fleet can be seen from space. The squid’s greatest protection is its amazing fecundity. During the mating season, each female can lay up to 750,000 eggs.
