These small silver fish are Anchovies, which periodically appear in and around Monterey Bay in huge schools. Six or seven decades ago, another small silver fish, the sardine, spawned a burgeoning industry in Monterey. Sardine fishing and sardine canneries were big business up until the 1960s. Cannery Row was built, immortalized by John Steinbeck, and by the 1970s had fallen into decay.

Why? No more sardines. Whether it was overfishing, climate change, some other environmental factor, or a combination, nobody knows. But the reason there isn’t a photo of a school of sardines above this caption is because they haven’t been seen in these parts in many years.

Photo No. 032U16 ©1984 Marc Shargel
Photographed at South Montastery Beach, Carmel

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