What is the current state of the California/Oregon/Washington/British Columbia sardine and anchovie fisheries? I’m under the impression that sardines have not made much of a comeback since the collapse of their numbers in the '50s. Are they still being overfished? Have anchovies edged them out through competition? If sardines prefer warmer water and anchovies prefer colder water, what are the effects of climate change? What’s going on with the upwelling that made sardine fishing so profitable early last Century?
Why are anchovies so salty? Are they naturally salty, or did someone decree that they needed a ‘signature taste’ and that would be of salt? i.e., They’re salty because ‘people have always made them that way’?
I can’t really speak for any areas north of California, but here in the Golden State the catches of sardines have been a tiny fraction of the catches for the 1930s and 1940s - signs that the population has never really recovered from the combination of overfishing and shifting oceanic conditions. Check this NOAA site for a graph of sardine catches in different parts of the Pacific and you can see how miniscule the California catches have been.
Similarly, by going to this NOAA - Southwest Fisheries Science Center site, you can select a fish and see the landings of them for decades into the past. The graph for California landings of northern anchovy shows a peak of less than half a million pounds in 2001, while the last time that was exceeded was in the early 1980s and the peak in the 1970s was over 3 million pounds.
I can’t say that I know, but it looks like catches are low compared to historical highs. Populations are probably also low, so the question of whether they’re overfished or not becomes one of how low.
There is at least some niche partitioning with sardines and anchovies. Sardines prefer to eat phytoplankton and direct zooplankton, while anchovies prefer large zooplankton. Direct competition is not a likely cause of abundance cycles in these fish, temperature is likely more important - and I suppose indirect competition is a possibility, but I haven’t seen evidence suggesting its importance.
Generally, the ocean off California has been warming over long time scales. Anchovy are unlikely to thrive in warmer water, and sardines may prefer it, but their food supply may be as or more important than temperature, which neatly brings us to…
The upwelling still occurs, and multi-decadal scale oscillations in ocean conditions are more important to sardine and anchovy population numbers than the annual upwelling conditions. But since you asked, upwelling off California was both weak and late in 2005 and 2006 - causing the more notable decline and distress in seabird and marine mammal populations, but inevitably affecting fish too. Upwelling in 2007 is looking much more promising now, so keep your fingers crossed.
Perhaps with another answer you can build a mast and start sailing your raft of answers around the sea (in search of anchovies, no doubt )?
Northern anchovies don’t taste extremely salty if you eat them fresh. There must be something in the preservation process that gives them the extra salty taste. I want to say ‘salting,’ but I am immediately suspicious of the too easy answer.
I should also mention:
It appears not, Environmental Defense rates them as one of the “eco-best” fish to consume, indicating that unless they’ve made a big mistake, the fishery should be sustainable. It also turns out that one of the reasons California landings are so low in modern times is importation of northern anchovies from Mexico, where there is a successful fishery.
Sorry - this should be smaller zooplankton. Me thinking too fast for me typing - ARRRR!
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