4 
BULLETIN" OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
The flesh is dark-colored, rich, and oily. The fresh sardine, when broiled or 
grilled, has a delicate flavor and is very palatable. It is improved by the slight 
salting that it usually receives when intended for immediate consumption. The 
California sardine resembles the French Ash in character of flesh and is a more 
perfect substitute for it than any other American species. 
The range of the sardine or pilchard extends from Sweden to the Madeira Islands. 
The southern coast of England, the Atlantic coast of France, and the Mediterranean 
Sea are the chief centers of abundance. 
On the coast of Brittany the sardine de rogue is found for about nine months of 
the year, being absent from the inshore waters most of the winter. When the fishing 
season opens, the fish are reported first about February at Arcaebon and other 
southern points on the west coast, and gradually reach the districts toward the north. 
During the winter, however, the large fish — some a foot in length — are observed at 
various places on the coast. 
The immature sardines frequent the coast waters throughout the summer and 
remain in Brittany until late fall. Some years, if the season is mild, they are caught 
until the first or second week in December; but a storm coming any time in Novem- 
ber is likely to drive the fish away and terminate fishing for the season. In 1900 
sardine -fishing at Concarneau was ended November 5 — the same date as in 1899 — by 
a southwest storm, which swept away all the sardines in the bay. 
The spawning time on the coasts of England and France is .from June to October. 
Spawning takes place at a considerable distance from the land, and ripe or spawning 
fish are seldom caught, as fishing is done mostly in the inshore waters. The small 
fish used for canning purposes on the French coast are never found with ripe eggs or 
milt, and are now known to be immature fish hatched in the summer and fall of the 
previous year. The eggs are buoyant, and the average number extruded is reported 
as 60,000. In the Mediterranean the sardine apparently belongs to a different race, 
which is smaller than the oceanic form and reaches maturity when under T inches 
in length. 
When sardines first arrive they are poor and unsuitable for canning; but as the 
season advances they improve in quality, and are fatter in September than in June 
and in December than in September. Their food consists mainly of copepods and 
other small Crustacea. Small fish eggs are also a favorite food. The fondness of 
the sardine for such eggs plays an important part in the fishery. 
The sardines go in schools and swim at or near the surface. As many as 100,000 
fish have been taken in one net from one school, but the usual size of the schools is 
small. They are preyed on by cetaceans and by many fish — on the French coast the 
mackerel, the haddock, and the dolphin being especially destructive. 
Dike other free-swimming oceanic fish, the sardine varies in abundance from 
year to year; but there is no evidence that the extensive fishing is effecting any 
permanent reduction of the supply. During the years 1887 to 1890 there was an 
alarming scarcity of sardines on the French coast, and the outlook for the industry 
was serious, but after four years the fish returned in their former numbers. The 
history of the sardine fishery shows what extensive operations may be supported 
annually when the natural conditions permit the fish to spawn unmolested, the 
spawning-grounds in this case being many miles offshore. 
