The incursion of the large, warm-water epipelagic fishes noted above was associated with anomalously warm surface waters off Oregon and the lack of an upwelling front separating cool nearshore from warm oceanic waters. These epipelagics probably migrated inshore and are not directly associated with "El Nino water" from the south. Interestingly, of these big pelagics, only yellowtail were reported in 1983; however in 1983 there were many northern distributional records of small, reef/benthic fishes which have yet to appear during the 1997-98 ENSO. The biggest surprise to me is the migration of Dosidicus gigas, the Humboldt squid, into Oregon waters. This is a species that has occurred off southern California during El Ninos. It is probably a distributional record here. Large quantities of this squid (thousands of pounds) have been and are being caught by midwater and bottom trawlers--even into early December, after surface waters have been cooled by mixing. They are voracious predators on small fishes, as are the other migratory fishes, including mackerel."---William Pearcy wpearcy@OCE.ORST.EDU

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