Last US sardine cans being packed in Maine

[jibes138]

I always considered sardines the perfect food for sailing. You open the can, it is ready to eat, a couple saltines and you have a meal. Now they will no longer be available. Maybe Ross has a canning recipe for home canning the little critters.

PROSPECT HARBOR, Maine (AP) — The intensely fishy smell of sardines has been the smell of money for generations of workers in Maine who have snipped, sliced and packed small, silvery fish into billions of cans on their way to Americans' lunch buckets and kitchen cabinets.
For the past 135 years, sardine canneries have been as much a part of Maine's small coastal villages as the thick Down East fog. It's been estimated that more than 400 canneries have come and gone along the state's long, jagged coast.

 

[Tim R.]

You will still be able to get them. They just won't taste as good not being canned in Maine.

 

[kloudie1]

Awwww man ! I guess the ones we'll get now will still have silvery sides but it may be mercury shining !! We always called them "Seafood Platters" !

 

[jibes138]

Next thing they will be trying to get us to eat lobster in place of the sardines. Not sure I could lower myself to that level.

 

[Tim R.]

I don't think EAT LOBSTER this is a big issue EAT LOBSTER. There are EAT LOBSTER worse things EAT LOBSTER that could EAT LOBSTER happen.

 

[larryw]

It's the end of an era- the last of the tuna canneries on the West Coast closed years ago. I think the last of the canneries in American Samoa closed recently, too. I always keep some cans of sardines, tuna, those little hunks of anonymous smoked fish, with crackers for a lunch on work-on-the-boat days.

 

[sinnettc]

Saw that this morning; kind of depressing. There was a deserted cannery in Bass Harbor, on Mount Desert Island, where we lived from 73-77 and I remember when they shut down the cannery in Southwest Harbor. There are a lot of small Down East towns, like Prospect Harbor, where the cannery was a (or the) major employer and unfortunately many of them didn't have as much tourism to fall back on like they did on MDI.

The lumber and paper mills are slowly going the same way here in Oregon.

 

[Quoddy]

Herring

We lived in Lubec, which at one time had 20+ canneries .When we were there 2 were still running. Since antiquity herring were so plentiful in the Gulf of Maine they could be caught in weirs. A weir is a trap like fence extending from the shore made of trees and brush driven into the bottom. The fish run along the shore and circle around in the trap. In modern times they were vacuumed out.
The old debate went on as fish numbers continued to drop.” Now that the catch is reduced for some reason that has nothing to do with our success , regulation would hurt because it would reduce the catch and put people out of work“. Within the last 10 years, with inshore numbers down to almost nothing, new relatively unregulated offshore fishing for herring was done on a massive scale. This apparently wrote the final chapter for a resource that had help support coastal communities for hundreds if not thousands of years.
Canada still has at least one cannery for the tasty little fish.

 

[zeehag]

the canneries in fish harbor, lost angels all closed down more than 10 yrs ago---the canneries in washington state were scheduled to close--there are canneries in mexico--go figger--they are thriving, but the fishing fleets in this country are history. politics.

 

[MoonSailer]

Menhaden are now being overfished in the Chesapeake bay. In a few years they will be saying "who could have imagined?" The same happened to blue crabs and oysters. Who could have imagined that overfishing would lead to collapse. http://www.chesbay.org/articles/F-Report1.asp

 

[Ross]

As a species people are slow learners. First it was the Sturgeon, then the Cod, then the Herring and the Salmon now the Sardines.There is a island off the coast of South America that once supported a great guano industry. The sea birds were so abundant that two feet of manure could be collected each year and sold as fertilizer. Scientist calculated that only about 25 per cent of the total manure was deposited on the island the rest went into the water and supported a plankton population that supported a sardine population that supported the bird population. factory ships moved in and whipped out the sardine population, the birds couldn't find anything to eat, so they left, there was no more manure to fertilize the plankton so there was nothing for sardines to eat. Today the island is barren and so is the ocean in that region.

 

[sailingdog]

I suddenly have a craving for lobster... wonder why...

I don't think EAT LOBSTER this is a big issue EAT LOBSTER. There are EAT LOBSTER worse things EAT LOBSTER that could EAT LOBSTER happen.

 

[RichH]

As a species people are slow learners. First it was the Sturgeon, then the Cod, then the Herring and the Salmon now the Sardines.There is a island off the coast of South America that once supported a great guano industry. The sea birds were so abundant that two feet of manure could be collected each year and sold as fertilizer. Scientist calculated that only about 25 per cent of the total manure was deposited on the island the rest went into the water and supported a plankton population that supported a sardine population that supported the bird population. factory ships moved in and whipped out the sardine population, the birds couldn't find anything to eat, so they left, there was no more manure to fertilize the plankton so there was nothing for sardines to eat. Today the island is barren and so is the ocean in that region.

The simple answer is: Too many PEOPLE, not enough recipes.

 

[larryw]

Even in Mexico canneries are closing; Turtle Bay and Cabo both used to have processing plant/canneries that have long ago shut down.

 

[MoonSailer]

The problem is that the government is too friendly with the fishermen. If the fish start getting thinned out too much the fishermen get their congressman(etc) to put pressure on the regulators with the result that the resource is destroyed.

 

[MrBee]

Many years ago I delivered Aluminum to the plant in Prospect harbor. Several times over a 7 year period.
It really is very simple.... money talks, Science Walks... till it's to late, then they place limits on the Sport fisherman. Happens over and over again.
They act like they don't know but they do, they just don't care as long as the money rolls.

might i suggest that from now on you don't Vote FOR any one, Fire the incumbent no matter what their affiliation. If they are in office, they screwed you, one way or another.

 

[dscribner]

I could be wrong, but overfishing the little guys is probably not the reason. The trouble is probably taxes. Maine is one of the worst states for taxes and is essentially erradicating small business. I'm not a political beast at ALL, but I'm a Maine tax payer and I have eyes.

 

[RECESS]

I am the kind of person you can chase around the house with a can of sardines while I run and scream like a 10 year old girl. DO NOT WANT. So you can imagine the paralyzing fear that happened one evening while I was living in the Azores. I had been with some friends at a street bull fight, which means about ten hours of intense San Miguel beer drinking in the full sun. We were polluted when we got back to Jovere's house and then had a bottle or two of Vino while his wife cooked dinner. When we sat down, fried sardines.

These were about three times bigger than what is in the can and they were fried whole... heads... tails... guts... the whole nine yards. I was mortified and not able to focus my eyes very well. As I would never insult a host I was resigned to eat them however they ate them... heads... tails... guts.... whatever it took to be a good friend. I was seriously praying though while I said what a wonderful meal this was.

I ate a dinner roll and sipped wine and then the moment came, Jovere picked up a sardine. I prayed a little more intensely that he did not snap of that head in his mouth and swallow. It was like there was a bright light shinning down from Heaven when everyone was pulling the meat off the bones with their fingers and not eating the whole fish. These were pretty big sardines. Damn good fish when fried.

You can still chase me around the house while I scream like a 10 year old girl with a can of sardines. My wife and I have an agreement. She does not open a can of sardines in the house and I do not cook liver.

 

[sailingdog]

Note to self...bring sardines when visiting aboard s/v Recess.

I am the kind of person you can chase around the house with a can of sardines while I run and scream like a 10 year old girl. DO NOT WANT. So you can imagine the paralyzing fear that happened one evening while I was living in the Azores. I had been with some friends at a street bull fight, which means about ten hours of intense San Miguel beer drinking in the full sun. We were polluted when we got back to Jovere's house and then had a bottle or two of Vino while his wife cooked dinner. When we sat down, fried sardines.

These were about three times bigger than what is in the can and they were fried whole... heads... tails... guts... the whole nine yards. I was mortified and not able to focus my eyes very well. As I would never insult a host I was resigned to eat them however they ate them... heads... tails... guts.... whatever it took to be a good friend. I was seriously praying though while I said what a wonderful meal this was.

I ate a dinner roll and sipped wine and then the moment came, Jovere picked up a sardine. I prayed a little more intensely that he did not snap of that head in his mouth and swallow. It was like there was a bright light shinning down from Heaven when everyone was pulling the meat off the bones with their fingers and not eating the whole fish. These were pretty big sardines. Damn good fish when fried.

You can still chase me around the house while I scream like a 10 year old girl with a can of sardines. My wife and I have an agreement. She does not open a can of sardines in the house and I do not cook liver.