English name: Pacific Salmon
Common name: Pacific sardine, California sardine, South American sardine, Chilean sardine.
Origin and season:
California, Oregon.
Introduction:
Pacific sardines (Sardinops sagsx) are a member of the herring family. They are native to the vast eastern waters of the Pacific Ocean from Chile in the south to British Columbia, Canada in the north. Pacific sardines are very abundant, and in years of abundance they can produce more than 4 million tons.
The Pacific sardine is marketed under a number of different names depending on its origin, including South American sardine, Chilean sardine and California sardine.
The U.S. sardine fishery has a long and disjointed history. In the 1930s and 1940s, the Central California port city of Monterey operated a large canning industry that could process more than 700,000 tons of these small silversides annually. But by the 1940s, the sardine resource began to shrink, and the species nearly disappeared in a commercial sense, only to recover recently.
Starting in the 1990s, California's sardine stock began to recover in large numbers. Biologists believe the current sardine stock is sufficient to sustain an annual catch of 200,000 tons. The current Pacific sardine harvest is limited primarily by market demand, not by harvest targets.
A large portion of Pacific sardines are concentrated in the waters around the Baja California peninsula in northern Mexico. These sardines spawn year-round, with peak spawning occurring in California waters in January and February. Pacific sardines can survive for up to 13 years and reach 40 centimeters in length, but most catches are smaller than 30 centimeters and weigh between 50 and 110 grams.
Pacific sardine catches fluctuate greatly, and because they can be caught in large numbers in purse seines, they are easily overfished. Changes in the ocean environment, such as the El Ni?o phenomenon, can also cause large changes in catches. Pacific sardines are sensitive to water temperature. When water temperatures are higher than normal, they migrate farther out to sea than the U.S. fishing zone.
The U.S. sardine fishing fleet consists of purse seiners of 20 to 30 meters in length. Most of the fishing takes place at night, when the silvery fish can be easily seen from scout planes or fishing boats. About 80% of the sardines are caught in waters up to 6 kilometers offshore. Fishermen keep their catch in frozen seawater tanks and ship it off within hours of catching it.
The highest-value Pacific sardines tend to be over 100 grams and contain between 15 and 20 percent oil. These frozen sardines are mainly sold to Japan where they are processed into many different products. They are also made into canned foods of different sizes.
Fish caught in the northern growing areas of sardines are larger and contain more oil. For example, Pacific sardines caught in Oregon average 150 to 200 grams and can contain up to 20 percent oil.
The oil content of Pacific sardines is highest between September and October. Sardines caught after spawning have a sharp drop in oil content and are therefore of very low commercial value.
In addition to food, Pacific sardines are sold as bait or as a drink for farmed fish. At one time, for example, more than 10,000 tons of U.S.-caught sardines were sold to bluefin tuna farmers in South Australia. Pacific sardines are also used as bait for tuna long-line hook-and-line fishing. While most of the product is bought by Japanese trading companies, they are mostly used on Chinese tuna fishing vessels.