Pacific Sardine Catch Levels Decreased - Oceana USA

Victory | November 1, 2013

Pacific Sardine Catch Levels Decreased

After campaigning by Oceana and our allies, the Pacific Fishery Management Council voted reduce the 2014 sardine catch levels by 33 percent to help halt dramatic declines in this important species. Since 2007, the Pacific sardine population has fallen by almost 979,000 tons and is at its lowest biomass in two decades, according to a population assessment released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in October. Declines in the sardine population will negatively impact the many Pacific species that rely on these fish for food, including Chinook salmon, bluefin tuna, brown pelicans, dolphins, and large whales.