"The estimates of spawning biomass of the Pacific sardine off California in 1994 - 2010 based on the traditional method are: 127,000 mt, 80,000 mt, 83,000 mt, 410,000 mt, 314,000 mt, 282,000 mt, 1.06 million mt, 791,000 mt, 206,000 mt, 485,000 mt, 300,000 mt, 600,000 mt, 837,000 mt, 392,00 mt, 117,000 mt, 185,000 and 108,000mt (for the standard DEPM area), respectively. These estimates of spawning biomass indicate that there has been considerable fluctuation during this time (the peaks occurred in 2000 and 2006) and that biomass has declined in the recent three years. The time series of spawning biomass was one of the fishery independent inputs to the annual stock assessment of the Pacific sardine from 1985 - 2008. Since 2009, the time series of spawning biomass was replaced by female spawning biomass for years when sufficient trawl samples were available and the total egg production for other years as inputs to the stock assessment of Pacific sardine"--summary.

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)

Pacific Coast (U.S.)