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Pacific Sardine

Pacific sardines are a forage fish famous for forming enormous, tightly packed schools that move in near-perfect synchrony—sometimes containing up to 10 million fish.

 

The Pacific sardine is a small, streamlined fish that typically inhabits coastal waters and the open ocean in depths up to 200 meters (656 feet). It has five different subpopulations, each found in different areas around the world, including along the eastern Pacific coast of North and South America, near Australia, around southern Africa, and in the northwestern Pacific from Russia’s Peter the Great Bay, along the coast of Japan, south to Taiwan. Adults usually grow to about 18–25 centimeters (7.1–9.8 inches) long and are easily recognized by their bluish-green backs and white sides with one to three rows of dark spots along their sides.

Pacific sardines travel seasonally along the shoreline, coming together in huge schools to feed on tiny plankton floating in the water. Schooling offers fish like sardines a variety of benefits: it helps them find food and mates, evade predators, and save energy. However, with millions of fish swimming together, sardine schools also are a very popular target for predators, including seabirds, marine mammals, sharks, and larger fish.

 

 

Pacific sardine populations naturally fluctuate due to changes in ocean conditions, but they may also affected by fishing pressure and changes in ocean sea surface temperatures. Intense fishing pressure during times when the population is high can lead to fishery collapses when abundance declines. Although the species is currently listed as “Least Concern” on the IUCN Red List, some subpopulations, such as the one off the U.S. and Canadian Pacific Coast, have experienced such extreme crashes that most commercial fisheries have been closed to allow the population to recover.

 

 

Because sardines are such an important food source for many marine animals and coastal communities, maintaining sustainable fisheries and healthy ocean ecosystems is essential for supporting both sardine populations and the species that depend on them. For more than a decade, Oceana has fought to stop overfishing and rebuild Pacific sardines, securing multiple victories along the way. In June 2025, we secured a new science-based rebuilding plan to help this vital species recover. Learn more about Oceana’s continued fight to rebuild this fishery and protect the ecosystems and communities that depend on it here.

 

 

 

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