Sardine Run in California?

[drbill]

A friend in Egypt asked whether I knew anything about a sardine run in California waters. I had to reply that I rarely see sardines off Catalina and wasn't aware of a sardine run down this way. Any divers in California aware of such an event (similar to the runs off South Africa)?

 

[outofofficebrb]

I was intrigued so did a bit of searching. I found this video:
Then I found many articles in the last 3 years or so talking about the sardine population crash and problems which have also halted fishing for them in the Pacific/West Coast. I don’t know that an operator ever seized the moment when they were around and it’s the first I have also heard of it.

 

[Ken Kurtis]

Maybe he's thinking of our squid runs????

 

[Sam Miller III]

Monterey California was established around the sardine packing industry
A few 100 yards out from MacAfee beach you can often run across the remains of some of the sardine packing equipment
( I assume it is still illegal to dive at MacAfee beach )

I recall that the great John Steinbeck may have mentioned a sardine run in Cannery Row or possibly some of Doc Rickett work Possibly Between Pacific tides ? (should be in every divers library)

I recall when we began blue water spear fishing in 1950s or so..there was still a presentable SoCal sardine population .Always searched for a bait ball of Sardine's to hang with - sooner or later a WSB would zoom in for bite.

I don't recall ever seeing a huge sardine run -but suspect they also occurred in the 1950s and 1960s -- when we had a population of sardines

Sam Miller, III

 

[geoff w]

I occasionally see a big bait ball of sardines shore diving here, but nothing like a run. When I've seen big flocks of birds sitting on the surface, they're usually just sitting there. Once on a shore dive we dropped down and headed there way to see what was under them, and just saw sand

 

[TracysaCADiver]

Don't know if this mattters, but what usually brings the humpbacks and greys into Monterey Waters? I thought it was the Sardines... maybe someone who's a NorCal expert can chime in here and set the record straight...

 

[Ken Kurtis]

Just to be clear, no one's saying there aren't sardines around and sometimes lots of them. But the original question to Dr. Bill was about a "run" which, if you think about the run that starts in South Africa, is regular, predictable, and beyond massive. We get sardines, they may school, they may form baitballs, but we don't get a "run" like what you get across the world.

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

Maybe it is the Grunion Run they are thinking of?

 

[TracysaCADiver]

Just to be clear, no one's saying there aren't sardines around and sometimes lots of them. But the original question to Dr. Bill was about a "run" which, if you think about the run that starts in South Africa, is regular, predictable, and beyond massive. We get sardines, they may school, they may form baitballs, but we don't get a "run" like what you get across the world.

Ken, thanks for the information and no worries. I didn't take it that way.

My main question was actually what brought the Humpbacks and the Greys to our waters (and even specifically the Monterey waters). I had seen news reports in the past that said that it was the sardines, but definitley wasn't thinking it was an actual "Sardine Run" like the one in South Africa.

Tracy Saunders

 

[Ken Kurtis]

I had seen news reports in the past that said that it was the sardines, but definitely wasn't thinking it was an actual "Sardine Run" like the one in South Africa.

Tracy, you are correct (from what I understand) that the Humpbacks and Blues (not so much the Greys - that's a migration thing) follow the sardines. And over the last decade, as sardines have become scarcer and scarcer, the whales have ranged further and further south to find food. Go back 20, maybe even just 10 years, and we really didn't see Blues & Humpbacks this far south. Now, they're a regular occurrence.