Small Coastal Pelagic Fishes Small Coastal Pelagic Fishes - Anchovy, Sardine, and Mackerel Staff with the La Jolla Laboratory 's Fisheries Resources Division study economically and ecologically important small, schooling fishes.
Biologists evaluate factors that affect their distribution, abundance, and survival.
The Division also studies factors that affect the economics of fisheries for this group of fishes. The work is done primarily in support of the Pacific Fishery Management Council so that these resources and their fisheries can be regulated effectively. The staff also works with Mexico, the California Department of Fish and Game , and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography on cooperative assessments of coastal pelagic stocks such as anchovy and sardine. The CalCOFI program was originally established in 1949 to investigate factors relating to the collapse of the sardine fishery off California, but over the years its research has broadened to include other species as well. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography chiefly processes and analyzes oceanographic observations and studies the taxonomy and zoogeography of planktonic organisms other than fishes.