Accepted: 12 February 2017 DOI: 10.1111/maec.12433 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Oceanographic influences on the distribution and relative abundance of market squid paralarvae (Doryteuthis opalescens) off the Southern and Central California coast Joel E. Van Noord1 | Emmanis Dorval2 1California Wetfish Producers Association, San Diego, CA, USA Abstract 2Ocean Associates Inc. under contract to Market squid (Doryteuthis opalescens) are ecologically and economically important to Southwest Fisheries Science Center, La Jolla, the California Current Ecosystem, but populations undergo dramatic fluctuations that CA, USA greatly affect food web dynamics and fishing communities. These population fluctua- Correspondence tions are broadly attributed to 5–7- years trends that can affect the oceanography Joel E. Van Noord, California Wetfish Producers Association, San Diego, CA, USA. across 1,000 km areas; however, monthly patterns over kilometer scales remain elu- Email:
[email protected] sive. To investigate the population dynamics of market squid, we analysed the density Funding information and distribution of paralarvae in coastal waters from San Diego to Half Moon Bay, National Oceanic and Atmospheric California, from 2011 to 2016. Warming local ocean conditions and a strong El Niño Administration, Grant/Award Number: Internal Cooperative Research Grant event drove a dramatic decline in relative paralarval abundance during the study pe- riod. Paralarval abundance was high during cool and productive La Niña conditions from 2011 to 2013, and extraordinarily low during warm and eutrophic El Niño condi- tions from 2015 to 2016 over the traditional spawning grounds in Southern and Central California. Market squid spawned earlier in the season and shifted northward during the transition from cool to warm ocean conditions.