There is limited information about the stock size of European squid in the Celtic Seas, but there has been a general decline in squid in this area, so there could be concern for stock biomass. Landings have shown a boom and bust pattern, which could indicate overexploitation, so fishing pressure is also of concern.Route 2 scoring has been applied to this rating owing to the lack of reference points for fishing pressure and biomass. European squid has low vulnerability (19 out of 100).There are no stock assessments for squid species in UK seas. Two species of long-finned squids - European and veined - are caught together. This makes it difficult to infer species-specific trends. European squid is one of the most common squids in the coastal waters of the Northeast Atlantic and the Mediterranean. In the Northeast Atlantic, it is probably the main component of long-finned squid landings.From 2016-2018, between 7% and 22% of long-finned squid catches in Northeast Atlantic were from the Celtic Seas. Landings reached a low of around 600 tonnes in 2006, increased to around 2,700t in 2011 and dropped to 600t again in 2016. They increased substantially again in 2017 and dropped by more than 50% in 2018. Squid abundance can fluctuate with changes in environmental conditions, but the occurrence of these boom and bust cycles in landings may be at least partly fishery driven. This suggests that exploitation levels are above optimum, and there may be concern for the fishing pressure. From 2016–2018, loliginid squid landings were above the average in Rockall (6b) and below the average in the south west of the UK (7f-k).There is no information about the abundance of European squid in this area. Some surveys are carried out to assess biomass, but in the Celtic Seas a considerable proportion of the long-finned squids are not identified to species. When looking at trends for long-fined squids in general, the average abundance from 2016-2018 is lower than 2013-2015. There could, therefore, be concern for the biomass.Overall, UK catches of Loligo species in the Northeast Atlantic have increased 40.4% from 2015 to 2019 (2,362 tonnes to 3,315 tonnes) and the average price increased 16.6% from £3.61/kg to £4.21/kg. Squid fisheries are likely to continue to grow in importance and magnitude as many finfish stocks either are fully or over-exploited. Without adequate stock assessments, there could be concern for future impacts on stocks.
