Examples are herring, squid, anchovy, sardine, and mackerel. A final draft of the plan was approved and submitted to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce in June of 1978. Regulations implementing the FMP for northern anchovy were published in the Federal Register on September 13, 1978. In December 1998, Amendment 8 was approved and the plan was renamed the Coastal Pelagic Species Fishery Management Plan .
Sardines are small schooling fish that inhabit coastal subtropical and temperate waters.
Pacific sardine have at times been the most abundant fish species in the California current. During times of high abundance, Pacific sardine range from the tip of Baja California to southeastern Alaska. When abundance is low, Pacific sardine do not occur in commercially fishable quantities north of Point Conception, California. Juvenile and adult sardine are consumed by an assortment of fish, seabirds, and marine mammals. Pacific sardine are generally canned for human consumption.