Jumbo flying squid in the Eastern Pacific extends from the Chilean waters to the Canadian coasts. The NE Pacific and SE Pacific represent genetically different stocks with some migration among them, in a genetic structure apparently influenced by oceanic currents (Sandoval-Castellanos et al. 2010).

In the SE Pacific, different groups have been identified based on size-at-maturity (Nigmatullin et al. 2001).

Studies conducted by Chile and Korea were consistent in identifying a single genetic stock that extends on the High Seas, outside national waters, and Peruvian, Ecuadorian, and Chilean national waters (Ibañez et al. 2022)(NIFS 2022). A study by Peru identified some structure but it was argued that this was a result of a different sampling design (Sotil and Guarnizo 2022) (SPRFMO 2022). The latest studies based on COI gene suggest the presence of two genetic units of jumbo flying squid along the Pacific Ocean, and this spatial genetic structure is associated with isolation by distance model (Ibañez et al. 2023). (Sotil and Guarnizo 2023) found that based on the ND2 gene significant differences are observed between the coastal and oceanic individuals, mainly in the central oceanic ones (medium and large phenotype size-groups), and there is significant differentiation between the northern and hemisphere individuals.