I worked for a sardine company one summer forty years ago. Interestingly, the largest US 'market' for sardines at that time was prisons. Cheap protein, I suppose.
In 1950 Maine fishermen landed 185 million pounds of herring (sardines). Last year the landing was not quite 5 million pounds, most of it going for bait to catch one of the most fossil fuel intensive of sea prey — lobsters. Also in 1950, about 6000 people worked in more than 50 sardine canneries along the coast. The last Maine cannery closed in 2010, the final victim of overfishing and a successful marketing campaign by the canned tuna industry.
I worked for a sardine company one summer forty years ago. Interestingly, the largest US 'market' for sardines at that time was prisons. Cheap protein, I suppose.
In 1950 Maine fishermen landed 185 million pounds of herring (sardines). Last year the landing was not quite 5 million pounds, most of it going for bait to catch one of the most fossil fuel intensive of sea prey — lobsters. Also in 1950, about 6000 people worked in more than 50 sardine canneries along the coast. The last Maine cannery closed in 2010, the final victim of overfishing and a successful marketing campaign by the canned tuna industry.