Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation

It all started with a fish. Millions of them, actually. Once plentiful enough to support enormous fishing and canning operations in Monterey, California’s Cannery Row, and serve as a vital food source for seabird, fish, and marine mammal species- the Pacific sardine suffered a devastating population collapse in the late 1940s. The sudden bust prompted scientists to investigate and led to the discovery of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, PDO, a long-lasting cycle of variations that alternate between warmer and cooler temperatures. Understanding and tracking these warming and cooling trends have helped managers create management strategies that account for fishing and regime impacts, and as a result, the sardine population has begun to recover in recent years. NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) launched an initiative Green Seas/Blue Seas: The California Current, Climate Change and Sustainable Fisheries  in 2008. In an effort to spread awareness of this resource SWFSC created posters to distribute at schools, aquariums, museums, and conferences. This project seeks to further the efforts by combining science and art into a meaningful and articulate message.