Squid, Sharks, and Rats, Oh My!

This is a pretty crazy story! Japanese planes spotted a fishing vessel engaged in illegal drift net fishing off the coast of Alaska, and the US Coast Guard boarded it.

The offending vessel was not registered in any nation, an unusual situation, Francis said. The crew claimed the ship, called the Bangun Parkasa, was Indonesian. But Coast Guard inquiries found no such registration with the Indonesian government, she said.

And what did they find on board the mystery ship? Thirty sharks, thirty tons of squid, and an infestation of rats.

News coverage doesn't get any more specific, so the identity of the sharks and the squid are just as mysterious as that of the vessel. However, I would make an educated guess that squid caught with drift nets in the northern Pacific are Ommastrephes bartramii.

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