The Squid You Eat Is a Mystery, Seafood Mislabeling Explained

When you order Kalamari on a restaurant, the menu usually tells you one thing.

It's squid. We know that. Kalamari is squid.

But scientists know that there are more than 300 species of squid living in the ocean.

And most seafood labels do not tell you which one you're eating.

Even on a menu, it won't tell you what type of squid you're eating.

But when you order fish, it'll tell you what is salmon,

or it'll tell you a specific salmon or coho salmon,

or the type of cod that goes black cod, or the Atlantic cod.

There's all these different types of species of each of the types of food that you're eating.

Why aren't they identifying squid?

And most seafood labels don't tell you which one you're eating.

So in many cases, restaurants, grocery stores,

and employers simply label a product as squid or even Kalamari.

So the squid on the plate could come from multiple species,

different oceans, and completely different fisheries.

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Key question for today.

Why is squid one of the hardest seafood products to trace?

Shouldn't be.

We know a lot about squid.

We know that there's over 300 species.

We should be able to track where those species go.

We have the technology.

We have the ability.

We just don't do it.

So seafood products are often heavily processed before they reach consumers.

They are commonly sold as Kalamari,

squid rings, fried seafood platters, frozen seafood mixes.

Processing removes most identifying features because a lot of times you're just using rings.

That's what you see when you have Kalamari or seafood rings, right?

Grilled Kalamari.

So for example, when a whole squid is caught, scientists can identify the species

using features such as body shape, fin size, and placement,

tentacle length, and color patterns.

But when squid is cut into rings or chopped into pieces,

those features obviously disappear.

So once it is breaded and fried as Kalamari,

visual identification becomes nearly impossible.

I mean, you look at Kalamari.

All it is, it's just the bread.

And maybe you see the rings.

But you can't tell unless you actually get the DNA,

whether it's a specific species or not,

even for trained seafood expectors.

So this means seafood buyers and restaurants often rely entirely on paperwork

provided by the suppliers.

And I question sometimes whether they actually care.

And if that information isn't complete or inaccurate,

it becomes very difficult to verify.

So you can have something on the sheet saying it's one squid.

It's actually another squid.

But you have no idea of knowing unless you do the DNA bar coating.

So the research using DNA bar coating has shown that seafood products

often contain species that are not listed on the label.

In several studies, squid products marketed as a single species

were found to contain multiple species mixed together.

How does that happen?

And why does that happen?

Squid fisheries are some of the fastest growing fisheries in the world.

They involve hundreds of species, industrial fleets from multiple countries,

large fishing operations on the high seas.

That makes it very difficult to stop.

Some squid fisheries operate far from their national coastlines,

particularly in areas in the Pacific and the South Atlantic.

These distant water fleets can include dozens or even hundreds of vessels operating together,

sometimes using powerful lights at night to attract the squid to the surface.

So here's an example.

Off the coast of Argentina, there is a squid species that's heavily fished

and is fished sustainably and managed by the Argentinian government.

Within its exclusive economic zone.

But at some point during their life history,

that squid will cross the exclusive economic zone in the EEZ into the high seas.

Once it crosses into the high seas,

Argentina doesn't have any authority over that management.

And so the distance water fleet, often Chinese boats,

so I've been reading up on, which has the largest distance water fleet,

will line up along the border of that exclusive economic zone.

And once those squid come across, they try and catch as many as possible.

So by the time those squid species reach the restaurant menu,

the original catch information may have been passed through several companies

and several countries.

Every step adds another opportunity for information to be lost.

Squid highlights several challenges that may affect seafood products at the same time.

First, fisheries management for squid is often weak.

Unlike many fish stocks, squid populations are rarely managed with strict quotas

or detailed stock assessments.

Second, squid fisheries often operate across international waters,

where enforcement is more difficult.

Hopefully the high seas will allow that better enforcement to happen.

Third, labeling rules allow seafood to be sold under broad market names,

such as squid, rather than listing the exact species,

or even calamari, believe it or not.

So for consumers, that means the label provides very little information

about what they're actually eating.

And for scientists studying seafood supply chains,

squid is one of the clearest examples of how global seafood trade

can become opaque and difficult to track.

Now, tomorrow, we're going to be talking to Dr. Merin Quesa,

who is a fisheries scientist, a marine scientist, from Oshiana.

She also is a Pew Fellow.

And she studies fisheries supply chains.

She studies aquaculture fish feed she's been on the podcast before

for talking about fish feed for aquaculture

and sustainable and certified ones and how that's necessary.

Tomorrow, she's going to be featured on the podcast.

She studies seafood traceability and squid fisheries.

A lot of research on this and her research shows how global squid

supply chains work and how little information consumers often

receive about the seafood they eat.

So if you don't want to miss that interview,

hit that follow button right now so that you get tomorrow's interview.

But also, share this episode with somebody that you think would need it.

If you think they need to learn more about seafood traceability

or they want to know what the problems are out in the ocean,

they want to help solve it.

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I'm here for you.

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But that's it for today's episode.

I want to thank you so much for joining me on today's episode

of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.

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I'll talk to you tomorrow and happy conservation.