This year — as it had last — Marblehead Harbor has attracted a great multitude of squid, Harbormaster Webb Russell said in a recent interview.
And the squid attracted people. Lots of people.
Families regularly filled the Commercial Street docks in July fishing for the slippery creatures.
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But the dock was empty of people fishing for squid on Thursday after the town Marblehead Harbors and Waters Board prohibited fishing from the docks earlier this week.
A sign posted in front of the dock announces the prohibition.
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We were unable to reach the harbormaster on Thursday for information on the prohibition.
In our earlier interview the harbormaster said the arrival of squid into the harbor kind of exploded last year.
He said some years the harbor has lots of mackerel or other fish. It runs in cycles.
The past two years it has been squid.
People fishing for squid at the Commercial Street docks a week and half ago, many of them Cambodian-Americans, told us they fry the squid and eat them — calamari.
The docks had 50 or so people, mothers and fathers, children and grandparents.
It's a lot of work to clean the squid, said Matt Dolan, a member of Maddie's Anglers Club, in an interview over the weekend.
He said he has taken his son squid fishing down at the docks.
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