D.B. Pleschner: Pacific Sardines are not collapsing, may be in recovery

pacific sardineOn April 10, the Pacific Fishery Management Council closed the West Coast sardine fishery for a second straight year. The council followed its ultra-conservative harvest control policy and relied on a stock assessment that does not account for recent sardine recruitment. But in fact, there are multiple lines of evidence that young sardines are now abundant in the ocean. In addition to field surveys, fishermen in both California and the Pacific Northwest have been observing sardines – both small and large — since the summer of 2015. And California fishermen also provided samples of the small fish to federal and state fishery managers. Read the rest here 19:29

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