UC San Diego Library – Scripps Digital Collection

The following two reports, on the sizes of sardines taken by various kinds of fishing gear and caught in different areas of the Monterey and of the San Pedro fishing regions, present the results of an investigation made to determine whether or not the system of sardine sampling as carried on in the past is still adequate since changes have occurred in the fishery. The results are of importance to the industry because they show that lampara, purse seine and ring nets all take the same sizes of fish, that these sizes comprise the sardines available to the fishermen, and that no type of gear exhibits size selection differing from any other type. of greater importance to the industry is the evidence indicating that large fish first appear each winter to the north of Monterey and gradually become disseminated southward throughout the entire Monterey region, whereas in the San Pedro region no consistent distribution of differential sizes within the region is evident. The results are of value to the sardine investigation because of the demonstration of the continual reliability of our sardine sampling system and the furnishing of additional evidence indicating a southward movement of sardines along the California coast during the winter months.