MONITORING INTERANNUAL CHANGES IN SPAWNING AREA OF PACIFIC SARDINE (SARDINOPS-SAGAX)

It is easier to monitor the spawning area of the Pacific sardine than to mount a full-scale effort to precisely estimate spawning biomass. Monitoring the spawning area may be particularly economical when the sardine is extremely rare or extremely abundant. Such imprecise estimates will probably not answer the management question of whether or not to set a specific biomass quota. The spawning area estimate is a candidate - with aerial surveys, scale sedimentation rates, and acoustic-trawl surveys - for use in interpolating between years when the more precise SWFC daily egg production method is used.