Chokka squid and its environment (Environmental drivers of the Squid Fishery)

Back to last pageBack to Video list To next page

Ocean Science in Action - Oceans of the future

7. Environmental Drivers and Socio-Economic Consequences of the South African Chokka Squid Fishery Collapsing

7.2 Chokka squid and its environment ( Environmental drivers of the Squid Fishery)


Video duration - 06:44

There are a number of characteristics of squid that set them apart from many other commercially exploited marine species.

They are short-lived and fast growing, with high feeding rates. They also have high reproductive rates. These features have adapted them to be ecological opportunists that can rapidly exploit favourable environmental conditions, but equally, their abundance responds rapidly to poor conditions, so recruitment and abundance are usually highly variable on annual time scales.

In this lecture you will learn about the marine environment in which chokka squid are found and about the main drivers of seasons and variability. This lecture will illustrate how the life cycle of chokka has adapted to the oceanography, examine environmental factors affecting biomass and catches, and finally assess how climate change may impact the squid.

Prof M.Roberts - NMU, South Africa / Prof W.Sauer - Rhodes, South Africa


Further Reading:

Roberts, M.J. (2005). Chokka squid (Loligo vulgaris reynaudii) abundance maybe linked to changes in the Agulhas Bank (South Africa) ecosystem during spawning and the early life cycle. ICES J. mar. Sci. 62(1). pp. 33–55.


Sauer, W.H.H., Downey, N.J., Lipinski, MR., Roberts, M.J., Smale, MJ., Glazer, J., Melo, Y. (2013). Loligo reynaudi. In Advances in Squid Biology, Ecology and Fisheries. Rosa, R., Pierce, G., O’Dor, R. (Eds). Nova Science Publishers, Inc. 33-72 pp.


Read Video transcript

d96b37e25c18f40a