Haines-Lynn Canal fishermen might have an opportunity to diversify if a Juneau-based fishing charter and lodge owner is right about his hunch that a viable commercial squid fishery could exist in Southeast.

Richard Yamada, who's been operating fishing charters for 40 years, has been looking for ways to reduce the impacts on his business from king salmon declines. He speculates that an observed influx of magister squid in the northern inside passage might be one factor in salmon survival.

About 15 years ago while fishing for rockfish, he and his clients caught a magister squid.

"We didn...