. California fish and game. Fisheries -- California; Game and game-birds -- California; Fishes -- California; Animal Population Groups; Pêches; Gibier; Poissons. CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 181 Explanations for Unusual Abundance of Small Sardines The apparent abundance of small sardines off central California may be accounted for in several ways. IMost explanations seem rather absurd at first thought, but all possibilities must be considered. Prob- ably a combination of several factors rather than any one is responsible. In the first place, large fish, in general, have been more difficult to find
. California fish and game. Fisheries -- California; Game and game-birds -- California; Fishes -- California; Animal Population Groups; Pêches; Gibier; Poissons. CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 181 Explanations for Unusual Abundance of Small Sardines The apparent abundance of small sardines off central California may be accounted for in several ways. IMost explanations seem rather absurd at first thought, but all possibilities must be considered. Prob- ably a combination of several factors rather than any one is responsible. In the first place, large fish, in general, have been more difficult to find than usual off central California. Consequently, fishermen are liable to take a chance and set on fish whose sizes are doubtful rather than go days without wetting their nets. In any case, normal num- bers of small fish with a scarcityoP larger sizes would result in more schools of small fish being set on accidentally. Furthermore, a rapidly growing fleet of purse seiners without a proportional increase in the number of schools leads to increased competition for fish, undoubtedly resulting in more sets being made on fish of ques- tionable sizes. Again, changes in fishing gear may have made the small fish more evident. Previous to the 1929-30 sardine season at Monterey, practically all the nets were lamparas,^ which were made of smaller mesh than that used in present day purse seines and ring nets. Even if small fish had been abundant in the earlier days, sizes now gilling would not have gilled in the lamparas used at that time. The fact that fish are gilling now and causing fishermen no end of trouble may make their presence more apparent than in the past. However, this is the first season that small fish have been trouble- some during the eight seasons that the gear consisted chiefly of ring nets and purse seines. In addition, the sizes of gilled sardines indicate that most of them were hatched in the spring of 193(3, at wliich time unusually warm water was present off Monte
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