FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 70, NO. 3 



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Figure 1. — The annual catch of sardine (crosses) and anchovy (solid circles) in the California Current 

 system since 1916. Whole fish reduction was essentially banned in 1919 and a limited whole fish reduc- 

 tion fishery was opened in 1965. 



1964)'' in an informal statement, emphasized the 

 changing ratio of anchovy larvae to sardine lar- 

 vae from 3.1 to 1 in 1951 to 46.8 to 1 in 1959. 

 In a similarly informal statement, MacGregor 

 (MRC, 1964) described a method for estimating 

 the spawning biomass of pelagic spawning spe- 

 cies. That portion of his statement which is 

 related to sardine and anchovy follows: 



Egg and larval surveys conducted over the years 

 have given us a basis for estimating the total niunbers 

 of eggs and larvae produced each year in the CalCOFI 



" A review of estimates and procedures was conducted 

 for the California Marine Research Committee (MRC) 

 in 1964 and the texts of the presentations are to be 

 foimd there. Statements and calculations were neither 

 edited nor formally derived. Quotations from the Ap- 

 pendix to these minutes will be regarded as informal and 

 cited (MRC, date). 



(California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investiga- 

 tions) survey area for a number of fish species. We 

 also have information on the fecundity of a number of 

 these species and from the combined data can estimate 

 the biomass of spawning adult fish on each species. The 

 number of eggs a fish will produce at one spawning 

 appears to be directly related to the weight of the fish. 

 Thus, we can compute the numbers of eggs produced 

 in one spawning by a ton of female fish as follows: 



Species 

 Anchovy 



Sardine 



Millions of eggs 

 525 



241 



The above figures represent female fish only. If we 

 assume, as evidence indicates, that for each ton of 

 adult females there is also present a ton of adult males, 

 we would have to divide the number of eggs produced 



850 



