UPDATE: The Pacific Fishery Management Council has officially halted the current sardine fishing season to prevent overfishing in the area. The decision came after regulators discovered that the area's sardine populations have been declining faster than they realized.
Dive Brief:
- The Pacific Fishery Management Council has canceled the upcoming West Coast sardine fishing season, which would have begun in July .
- The move came upon the discovery that the number of sardines have dropped below the mandatory level for a fishing shutdown.
- The sardine industry's current situation echoes a similar collapse some decades ago.
Dive Insight:
The problem doesn't end there for sardine fishermen on the West Coast. While part of the problem could be a decrease in sardine spawning due to poor ocean conditions, the council will also look into if and how overfishing could be involved in the collapse. If so, the current season, which runs through June, could see an immediate shutdown as well. As it stands now, only about 100 boats on the West Coast have sardine fishing permits, which is about half as many that fished during the industry's best seasons.
On a more positive note, according to Frank Lockhart, council member of NOAA Fisheries Service, said that other fishing industries have bounced back from similar collapses, including salmon, lingcod, and rockfish.