Jumbo squid

China: 320,000t caught in 2017, approx. 15,200t (all squid species) imported to Australia in 2021.
This assessment has not been done under the GoodFish Wild Caught Seafood Standard. It has been adapted from the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch 2025 assessment for Peruvian, Chilean and Chinese (high seas) jig-caught jumbo squid.

This assessment applies to jumbo squid (also known as Humboldt squid) caught in the southeastern Pacific Ocean using jig fishing methods by a Chinese fishing fleet in the High Seas off the coast of Chile and Peru.

Jumbo squid are a very large and fast-growing squid species, reaching up to 1.2m mantle length and 50kg over their 1-2 year life span. They predate on a range of small pelagic fish, crustacean and squid species, and are expanding their historical range northward; possibly as a result of climate change and/or overfishing of their predators. They breed prolifically, and together these life-history attributes confer a relatively high resilience to fishing pressure.

The source fisheries of most chilled and frozen squid imported into Australia are unclear. Most squid purportedly originates from China, but problems with product labelling in Australia, mean it is unclear whether the squid is caught by Chinese vessels or by other nations and then sent to China for processing before being exported to Australia. Current regulations do not require the country of catch to be specified on the label, leading to potential confusion. Squid caught in Peru, Chile, and Argentina, for example, could be exported to China for processing and then re-exported to other countries.

Jumbo squid are caught using jig fishing methods which have negligible impacts on other species or marine habitats. Despite this, the species is likely to play a significant ecosystem role as a key predator, and this role may be impacted by heavy fishing pressure.

Scientific population assessment approaches have been established for this species, and its cyclical abundance is thought to be linked more closely to environmental factors affecting ocean currents than fishing impacts. At the time of this assessment, populations were considered healthy though there are indicators that suggest there is some concern for their health.

Management of this fishery is in its initial stages, and management measures are likely only moderately effective in the Chilean fishery. Controls on fishing pressure appear effectively absent for jumbo squid caught by the Chinese high seas fishery.

These concerns over effectiveness of fishery management outside of Chile’s territorial waters to constrain Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported fishing result in a Seafood Watch overall ranking equivalent to a GoodFish red ‘say no’ ranking.

While the difficulty in tracking Chilean-caught jumbo squid to the Australian market prevents confident assessment of that fishery here, Seafood Watch ranks Chilean-caught jumbo squid as equivalent to a GoodFish amber ranking.

IUU Fishing in Chinese distant-water squid fleets
Chinese distant-water fleets targeting squid have been reported to engage in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. This includes fishing without authorisation in another country’s territorial waters and turning off vessel transponders (“going dark”) to avoid detection. These practices and others occur in Chinese squid vessels operating in the Southeast Pacific, Southwest Atlantic and Northwest Indian Ocean.

Human rights abuses, including violence, exploitation, debt bondage, slavery and murder, have been documented to occur aboard Chinese squid vessels. Refrigerated cargo vessels, or reefers, enable squid vessels to offload their catch and be resupplied at sea, avoiding port authorities. As a result, workers can be trapped aboard in horrific conditions for years at a time.