Norwegian record European flying squid

No official record yet

Villmarksliv's official list of Norwegian sport-fishing records has no record for European flying squid yet. The first registered fish that meets the rules becomes the record.

About European flying squid

Dariozo (Italian Wikipedia) (CC BY-SA 3.0)

The European flying squid (Todarodes sagittatus), known in Norway as storakkar or simply akkar, is the ten-armed squid behind the traditional Norwegian akkar fishery. Its body is long and torpedo-shaped, with short fins at the rear of the mantle and eyes that lack a cornea. The mantle can reach about 75 cm, though most are under 35 cm, and the species probably lives only around one year. It ranges from West Africa and the Mediterranean to Norway, where it usually stays deeper than 200 m along the coast and the continental slope. In some winters large schools move close to the shore in Northern Norway, but these arrivals are highly unpredictable, and the squid was almost absent from the mid-1980s until 2008. When it comes inshore it is fished with multi-hook squid jigs, often combined with lights, but most of the catch is trawl bycatch. It was once used almost only as bait; today more of it is eaten. Note that squid caught on rod inside Norwegian fjords are usually veined squid. Norwegian Red List 2021: Least Concern (LC).

Sources: Artsdatabanken, Store norske leksikon, Havforskningsinstituttet, Wikipedia

• Habitat: Saltvann

See the species guide

Biggest European flying squid in FishComp

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How to register a Norwegian record

1. Norwegian sport-fishing records are registered with Villmarksliv, not with FishComp. Read the rules before you do anything else with the fish.
2. Records are based on weight and approved by a jury. You give the weight and length, where it was caught, the gear you used and any witnesses.
3. Keep your photos and notes from the catch. Logging it in FishComp does not register a record.