The Way of The Sardine: A Lesson in Ecological Disaster

Update on May 13, 2009. After further research as a result of a reader educating me on the latest, I found my story only told part of a bigger story that has to do with natural cycles, which you can read about courtesy of Monterey Bay Aquarium. "Pacific sardines once supported one of the largest and most profitable fisheries in the U.S., but by the late 1940s, the fish were virtually gone. Although overfishing most likely increased this decline, the dramatic decrease was later found to be part of a natural sardine “boom and bust” cycle which occurs every 30 to 40 years in the Pacific - when a change in water temperature and oceanic conditions favors either sardines or anchovies."

The Way Of The Sardine.

A true life story recounted by Donna Barnett.

The Monterey Peninsula in California is a marvelous natural wonder of sea, sand, and surf.

And now it's a popular tourist spot, too. If lucky, you may visit.

But first let me tell you that it was once home to the Native Indians, who respected the land and sea.

The land and sea were respected until white men discovered Monterey in 1770.

I tell you this modern day tale because its lesson applies to all natural resources, including clean air. Let's learn from California's mistakes, and choose more wisely.

In 1770, Father Serra arrived from Spain on a big boat.

Slowly the white man used Monterey's rich sea life for commercial sustenance.

Sardines were plentiful, perhaps the most plentiful fish in the area on the west coast.

And in 1902 when the sardines swam peacefully in the Monterey Bay, minding their own business, only occasionally used for sustenance by local inhabitants, a Japanese pioneer came to town with a grand business scheme.

Watch out sardines!

He plundered the sardines to death, and in time, extinction threatened the fish but not before our pioneer created Cannery Row on Ocean View Avenue in Monterey, an area rich in sea-salt aroma from Fisherman's Wharf.

Men and women canned Monterey Bay's limited supply of sardines in large factories.

Environmentalists warned of an ecological disaster if commercial interests continued killing these limited sardines unabated.

They spoke of extinction.

John Steinbeck hung out at sardine canning factories, and penned Cannery Row in 1958, making the factory workers, and later himself, famous. But by then, those factories were a ghost town, a relic of dreams gone awry. And the sardines...

Environmentalist warned of human suffering to follow the extinction of Monterey Bay's sardine population.

Urgent warnings and appeals for sardine conservation were ignored.

"We're all interconnected," people were told.

But nobody listened.

Nobody listened to reason, not even for their own health and well-being, a well-being about to crash and burn.

By the early 1950s the last sardine vanished from Monterey Bay. Human suffering ensued. People needed the food supply, which was gone to overuse and abuse. Commercial success vanished due to the lopsidedness of relying on one industry in an area now capoot.

People couldn't survive well.
And what of the sardines!?

What sardines?

An ecological disaster, yes. It was as if an earthquake shook all good out of the area, and its aftershocks were felt for miles and miles. Above and below sea level.

Today, there are no sardine factories in Monterey, only tourists.

Tourism is Monterey's main industry.

So Monterey tourists, enjoy the beauty but remember you're walking under a shadow of death that didn't need to happen, an ecological disaster that needn't ever happen again.

Let's learn from history rather than repeat it.

Make way for change, and stop plundering natural resources, which are limited.

Renewable is the only way.

Keep your eyes open for cradle to cradle products, and avoid limited natural resources.

Let's not go the way of Monterey's Sardines.