Pacific sardine Sardinops sagax supported the largest fisheries in the world during the
1930s and early 1940s, and again in the 1980s. These peak catches reflected major
increases in abundance of three sardine populations: off Japan, offwestern North America
(centered off California), and off western South America (centered off Chile). The dramatic
increases and decreases in these stocks were more or less synchronous and have been
related to patterns in climate-ocean conditions (ie, decadai scale regimes). Regime shifts …