Sardine fishery may be in peril

Conditions in northeast Pacific echo those related to collapse last century

The storied sardine fishery in the northeast Pacific may be tottering on the brink of another collapse, like one that shut down sardine fishing there for years in the middle of the last century.

Signs of trouble that foreshadowed the last collapse are recurring, warn two researchers at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, Calif.