Fisheries 



with about half based in southern California. 

 Similarly, about half the state's 10,000 com- 

 mercial fishermen were licensed in southern 

 California. 



Since 1926 statistics on the fish catch have 

 been tabulated and published by the Cali- 

 fornia Department of Fish and Game in a 

 series of reports entitled Fish Bulletins. Pe- 

 riodically the Fish Bulletins also contain 

 summary statistics and detailed information 

 about each of the approximately 70 impor- 

 tant species of commercial fishes, crusta- 

 ceans, and mollusks (Staff of Bureau of Ma- 

 rine Fisheries, 1949). Data for catches made 

 in waters off southern California were ex- 

 tracted from the Fish Bulletins and presented 

 graphically for the years 1926-1957 in Fig- 

 ure 236. 



Except for the years since 1952 two-thirds 

 or more of the tonnage of commercial fish 

 catch off southern California was sardines, 

 of which about 90 per cent were landed at 

 Los Angeles. Prior to about 1952 nearly as 

 many sardines were landed at Monterey as 

 at southern California ports, but afterward 

 the northern catch practically vanished. 

 Few sardines are imported from waters off 

 Mexico; thus they are concentrated in the 



305 



area off southern California. As pointed out 

 by Pinkas (1951) and Clothier and Green- 

 hood (1956), the best catches of sardines 

 (and of many other fishes) occur over areas 

 of particular kinds of bottom topography, 

 shelves, submarine canyons, and escarp- 

 ments. Each of these areas is characterized 

 by high productivity of sessile plants or phy- 

 toplankton owing to shallowness of waters 

 or to relatively intense upwelling. Accord- 

 ing to John Radovich of the California De- 

 partment of Fish and Game (personal com- 

 munication), areas of shallow water such as 

 the Santa Rosa-Cortes Ridge serve as ave- 

 nues of migration of sardines, possibly in 

 response to their need for food. After the 

 tremendous catch of sardines in 1950 (Fig. 

 236) the annual catch decreased markedly 

 and was nearly negligible in 1952 and 1953. 

 A price rise from about $35/ton in 1950 to 

 $114/ton in 1953 did not produce more fish, 

 of course, but merely reflected the demand in 

 the face of a short supply. The small catch 

 since 1950 has also resulted in more intense 

 competition for fish, as indicated by the lay- 

 ing up of many boats and the testing and 

 adoption by some of the surviving boats of 

 new techniques such as aerial reconnais- 



Figure 236. Catches of chief 

 commercial fishes in waters off 

 southern California between 

 1926 and 1957 as compiled 

 from statistics in Fish Bulletins 

 of California Department of 

 Fish and Game. For compari- 

 son, note the graphs of the 

 number of fishing boats and 

 price to fishermen of sardines, 

 compiled from the same source. 

 The monthly anomaly from 

 average water temperature for 

 the region (30° to 35° latitude 

 and 115° to 120° longitude) is 

 from Reid, Roden, and Wyllie, 

 1958). 



