59 million pounds of sardines were landed in Los Angeles in 2006. Sardines are a plentiful, environmentally friendly, and tasty fish. They feed at the bottom of the food chain, so they don't have problems with mercury accumulation like larger, longer living fish that feed higher on the food chain. By-catch of other species is generally low because vessels fish with roundhaul gear, which encircles schools of fish with nets.

Sardines became an important source of food during World War I and expanded rapidly during the 1920s and 1930s, peaking at a harvest of over 700,000 metric tons in 1936. This was the largest fishery in the west with about 200 boats and accounting for over 25% of the fish landed in the U.S. During the 1940s, a combination of overfishing and lower sea surface temperatures due to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation during with other fish such as anchovies become more plentiful.

The population of sardines remained low for nearly 40 years and in the late 1970s, sardine fishing was basically stopped by law. In the late 1980s, sardines begin to recover and some fishing resumes. By the mid-90s, the sardine population was strong because of higher sea surface temperatures and regulation limiting the catch. The sardine population appears to have peaked in recent years at over 50,000 metric tons. Researchers believe that it may start to decline naturally now, but believe the fishing regulations have prevented the kind of collapse that happened in the 1930s.

How are sardine regulations determined? First, the sardine biomass is determined. If you're curious as to how this is done, read this 120 page document published by NOAA. The 2006 biomass estimate was 1.1 million metric tons. The amount that can be legally harvested is about one tenth of that total.

Sardine fishing is mostly done in northern California in the summer and in southern California during the rest of the year, so the same fleet can fish year around. The sardines harvested in southern California are almost all offloaded at the port of San Pedro in Los Angeles because the distributors that have the equipment to offload, process, and export them.

Everyingham Brothers fishes sardines in San Diego and keeps them on bait barges in Mission Bay and San Diego Bay for use in sport and commercial fishing. They sell them by the "scoop". They scoop them out of the holding takes in the bay and into your container. A half scoop gives you about 5 pounds of fish for $25. A full scoop is $35, or about $3.50 per pound. The fish weigh about 1.25 ounces each and are 5 to 7 inches long. Everyingham Brothers also sell 4 to 6 inch anchovies for the same price. Pacific Shellfish sells them to regular customers at $4 per pound.

About 80% of California sardines are exported, mostly to Australia (about half), and a secondarily to Japan, Croatia, Thailand, and other countries. Exported sardines are likely used in large part to feed tuna that are farmed at sea.

Sardines are high in oil and have to be kept very cold (on ice) to keep them from going bad quickly.

NOAA Fish Watch - Sardines