October 1, 2026 — The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) has proposed merging two Pacific sardine subpopulations into a single stock, eliminating a rebuilding plan adopted and set in motion last year.
Currently, the federal government considers there to be two Pacific sardine stocks along the U.S. West Coast – a northern subpopulation and a southern subpopulation. NOAA Fisheries first listed the northern subpopulation as overfished in 2019.