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In 1999 an exploratory sardine fishery in Oregon started with three vessels landing a total 776 mt. This has increased
dramatically and the 2002 season showed 16 vessels participating making 657 landings for a total of 22,711 mt
(McCrae 2003). Harvest guidelines are set by the West Coast Pacific Management Council through their Coastal
Pelagic Species Fishery Management Plan and is set at 110,969 mt for the 2003 season (Conser et al. 2002). This
harvest quota represents 11% of the total sardine biomass and is derived from a conservative harvest formula that
estimates the standing stock at close to one million mt. The harvest guideline allocates 2/3 to the southern California
fishery and 1/3 to the Northern California, Oregon and Washington sector (NC-O-W). The north/south split, of the
quota, has caused some concern in the management of the fishery. This allocation was established in the 1950s when
there was little, if any, sardine harvest occurring. With the recent sardine recovery and active fishery, the majority of
the harvests have been in the NC-O-W sector. Because of this northern shift, the most recent management plan
allows for the harvest of uncaptured sardines from the southern California quota by the NC-O-W fishery in a timely
fashion (Munro 2003). This should allow for increased allowable harvests for the northern regions in the upcoming
seasons.

There are four processing plants actively landing sardines in the Astoria-Warrenton area and two in Ilwaco, WA.
The sardine fishery is considered a clean fishery with little by-catch because of the fishing methods. The schools of
fish are located by airplane and harvested by purse seining vessels. The fish are pumped directly from the nets into
refrigerated seawater (RSW) holds on board the vessels and rapidly cooled down to 0 ° C (Developmental Fishery
Board 2001). The fish are normally harvested in the afternoon and off-loaded at processing plants within 8 hr of
capture, graded by size, packed into ten-lb boxes and frozen (Morrissey 2002). Although the sardine biomass exists
from Southern California to Vancouver Island, the fishing activity is concentrated at the mouth of the Columbia River
close to local processing plants. This allows for rapid turnover from harvests to final products and an extremely high
quality product. Several Astoria plants made substantial investments into blast freezer systems specifically for the
sardine fishery.

Unfortunately, most of the landings in the Astoria area were processed as bait for the Japanese long-line fishery. The
average ex-vessel price was $0.05/lb or about $110/ton. The quality standards for the product are strict and require
very good quality control and workmanship. The sardines are landed and packed with scales intact with no visible
signs of damage in the appearance of the fish. Fat content is also important with requirements of greater than 12% fat
for some markets. Rapid freezing is critical in maintaining a high quality product. Product should be frozen to -20 ° C
in less than 10 hours. The average size and weight of the sardines landed in the Astoria area are 22.2. cm and 183 g
which are significantly larger individuals than many sardine harvests (McCrae 2003). While this has caused some
concern in the bait-fish industry which prefer smaller sardines 130-150 g in size, it does provide opportunities for
sardine processing for human consumption.

At a sardine workshop held in Astoria, Spring of 2002, the development of new products and market niches for
Pacific sardines was identified as a major constraint for economic success in this fishery (Morrissey 2003). There
was general consensus that demand for Pacific sardines for the bait industry is normally met at 15,000 - 20,000 mt
and there is global competition to fill this market niche. Attempts to develop new markets for Pacific sardines have
been met with mixed success. One possibility for utilization of pelagics such as sardines and anchovies is to develop a
functional protein that could be used as a base for several products similar to surimi. One of the more interesting
technological advances for protein recovery from fish flesh is the pH-shift extraction method developed by Hultin and
Kelleher (1999, 2000). This process is being investigated as an alternative to traditional surimi processing methods.
This pH-shift procedure uses the solubility of fish protein at pH extremes (both acid and alkaline) as a method of
efficient protein recovery. Both myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic protein are highly soluble at acid pH (~3.0) and
alkaline pH (~10.5). This allows the efficient separation of protein from non-protein material such as lipids,
membranes, skin, bones, and fish oil (Underland et al., 2002). Close to 100% of the myofibrillar protein and much of
the sarcoplasmic protein are recovered when the pH is brought to the isolelectric point and protein precipitated.
Yields have been reported as high as 40% for some species and there is less protein lost in waste water thereby
decreasing disposal costs. Protein functionality also remains high even though there is some denaturation at the pH
extremes. Promising research using the pH-shift method has been applied to Pacific whiting at the OSU Seafood
Laboratory (Choi and Park 2002; Kim et al. 2003).

There is also considerable interest in extracting fish oils high in omega-3 fatty acids which have numerous health
benefits (Nettleton 1995). Preliminary research has shown that Pacific sardine oil content increases dramatically
during the summer season to levels greater than 20% (Morrissey 2002). Because the pH-shift process is a cold-
process requiring no heat, there is efficient extraction of the fish oil from the flesh. This will also minimize
decomposition reactions to the unsaturated fatty acids often associated with heat-based extraction. Consequently, the
pH-shift process has the potential for extracting functional protein material as well as high quality fish oil with omega-
3 fatty acids. Separation and concentration of the omega-3 fatty acids docosahexaenoic (DHA) and
eicosapentaenoic (EPA) acids will be done through a lipase assisted concentration process ( Wanasundara and
Shahidi 1998; Sun et al. 2002) . The large number of double bonds in DHA (6 double bonds) and EPA (5 double
bonds) results in bending of the fatty acid chain. The terminal methyl group is consequently close to the glycerol
backbone causing steric hindrance for lipase activity. The lipase will then preferentially hydrolyze the saturated and
mono-saturated fatty acids and concentrate multiple double-bond compounds such as DHA and EPA.