New Federal Plan to Rebuild Pacific Sardine a Boost for Ocean Wildlife, Responsible Fisheries
Fishery rebuilding plan for key forage fish is a direct result of successful lawsuit and advocacy by Oceana and Earthjustice
Press Release Date: June 17, 2025
Location: Monterey, CA
Contact:
Jamie Karnik | email: jkarnik@oceana.org | tel: Jamie Karnik
The National Marine Fisheries Service published a revised rebuilding plan to help increase the perilously low Pacific sardine population off the U.S. West Coast. The new plan comes after Oceana and Earthjustice sued and won in court, showing the previous plan wasn’t enough to protect sardines—a critical source of food for fish, whales, sea lions and seabirds. Pacific sardines have been overfished for years, with the population collapsing by more than 98% since 2005.
Earthjustice sued the agency on behalf of Oceana after the Fishery Service issued a rebuilding plan containing woefully deficient management measures for sardines that even their own modeling showed would not recover the population. The court agreed that the plan lacked sound basis in science and violated the law and ordered the agency to issue a new plan by June of 2025.
“This new rebuilding plan for Pacific sardines is a big step forward toward protecting ocean wildlife, while also ensuring future fishing opportunities. Forage fish like sardines are the backbone of a healthy ocean food web and an essential food for so many of the animals we enjoy seeing off our shores,” said Ben Enticknap, Pacific Campaign Director and Senior Scientist for Oceana. “It’s been a long road to get this far, and while there’s still a lot more to do to help sardines recover there’s now some protective measures in place to help achieve that future goal.”
“Rebuilding overfished populations is a core requirement of our fisheries law,” said Earthjustice attorney Danika Desai. “We are happy the court recognized this. A lawful rebuilding plan that restores sardines to healthy levels is essential for a thriving ocean ecosystem and will help ensure there’s enough food in the sea for whales, sea lions, pelicans and other animals.”
The new rebuilding plan limits the annual catch of sardines at either 5% of their population, or 2,200 metric tons, depending on how large the population is estimated to be in a year. Modeling by fishery scientists indicate that so long as the population does not decrease much further, this approach is expected to recover the population to healthy levels. Under the plan, next season’s catch limit will be set at 2,200 metric tons, which is the smallest allowable catch in more than three decades and an essential step towards rebuilding the population and the fishery.
Although the new rebuilding plan corrects some significant errors identified by the court and Oceana, it fails to establish catch limits that ensure overfishing does not occur if the population continues to decline. Oceana and Earthjustice are continuing to work with the Pacific Fishery Management Council to fix this flaw. The groups will closely monitor sardine management under the rebuilding plan to ensure the sardine population is recovering and that the Fishery Service and Council are using science-based management as required.
Background:
After years of overfishing, the National Marine Fisheries Service officially declared the sardine population “overfished” in 2019. This designation required the agency to prepare a rebuilding plan within two years that would quickly recover fish numbers. But in 2021, the Service issued a faulty rebuilding plan that contained no significant changes to management.
In response, Oceana sued the agency, arguing that building plan was inadequate and did not follow the law. In April of 2024 Judge Virginia K. DeMarchi ruled for Oceana holding that the Service failed to meet its legal obligation to rebuild the sardine population. The judge also ruled that, based on extensive scientific evidence in the record, the previous plan would not ensure the population would rebuild within the legally required timeframe or protect it from overfishing. The Court ordered the Service to issue a new rebuilding plan by June 2025 to fix those errors. After more than a year of development, and with input from the public, the Service finalized the new sardine rebuilding plan earlier this month.
Pacific sardines are small schooling fish that are essential food for humpback whales, dolphins, sea lions, brown pelicans, Chinook salmon, and other important commercially and recreationally caught fish. When forage fish populations collapse, the loss can cascade through ocean ecosystems, as evidenced in the mid-2010s when more than 9,000 starving sea lion pups and yearlings washed up on California beaches, and brown pelicans experienced unprecedented reproductive failures.
While sardines naturally have “boom and bust” population cycles, overfishing and other human caused impacts increase those natural population declines, with catastrophic results. The current situation surrounding Pacific sardines eerily reflects the disastrous collapse of sardines in the 1950s made famous by John Steinbeck and his iconic book, “Cannery Row.”
Historically, the sardine population once supported the largest fishery in the western hemisphere and population numbers peaked at three to four million metric tons before mismanagement and overfishing led to a crash of the sardine population more than 70 years ago.
To learn more about Oceana’s campaign to improve management of sardines for healthy oceans please visit https://usa.oceana.org/responsible-fishing-pacific-sardines/
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Oceana is the largest international advocacy organization dedicated solely to ocean conservation. Oceana is rebuilding abundant and biodiverse oceans by winning science-based policies in countries that control one-quarter of the world’s wild fish catch. With more than 325 victories that stop overfishing, habitat destruction, oil and plastic pollution, and the killing of threatened species like turtles, whales, and sharks, Oceana’s campaigns are delivering results. A restored ocean means that 1 billion people can enjoy a healthy seafood meal every day, forever. Together, we can save the oceans and help feed the world. Visit Oceana.org to learn more.
Earthjustice is the premier nonprofit environmental law organization. We wield the power of law and the strength of partnership to protect people’s health, to preserve magnificent places and wildlife, to advance clean energy, and to combat climate change. We are here because the earth needs a good lawyer.
