Sardines

This hippo pool lies 50 yards from a dining area at the Serengeti National Park river camp where Terry Powers and his fiancee, Jennifer Rusin, spent eight days last fall. Powers, of Irvine, said the big neighbors were not that neighborly. "You'd go to the water's edge and they'd grunt and jostle, as if saying, 'You think you're gonna come in here?' " He used a Nikon N65 for the shot.

The catch of small, schooling fish such as sardines and anchovies should be cut in half globally and the amount left in the ocean doubled to protect the ecologically vital species from collapse, scientists say in a new report. The silvery species known as forage fish are harvested in huge numbers worldwide and are easy for fishermen to round up because they form dense schools, or "bait balls. " But wide fluctuations in their numbers make them especially vulnerable to overfishing, according to the report released Sunday by the Lenfest Forage Fish Task Force, a 13-member panel of scientists from around the world.

  After a recent trip to Las Vegas, there are two things deputy Food editor Betty Hallock still talks about: the white tigers at the Mirage and this beautifully layered sardine appetizer from L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon. "The fresh sardines were plump and juicy, and the concentrated tomato flavor of the concasse was rich and unctuous, offset by the vegetable crunch of slivers of cauliflower," she says. "I especially love the thin slice of butter on top -- amazing!" Sardines on toast Total time: About 1 hour Servings: 4 Note: Adapted from L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon.

My father used to eat sardines, bones and all and packed in oil, out of a can, which appalled me as a little girl. When I was older, I saw perfectly civilized people eating whitebait, or English sardines, in pubs near the water, and consuming enticing plates of tiny fried fish prepared in excellent Italian kitchens around Rome. Still, I thought sardines lowly and avoided them until one sunny spring day in Douarnenez, France. Even without the sardine epiphany I will remember the breezy, colorful town because of its enchanting name, pronounced doo-are-nay-nay . It's on a steep little peninsula on the Atlantic coast of France, and it looks over the Douarnenez Bay and the islet of Tristan, a setting for the medieval romance "Tristan and Iseult," according to Breton legend.

Warming ocean currents are bringing sardines back to Monterey Bay after decades of decline. Some scientists think global warming could be partly responsible for the burgeoning sardine population, although no one can say for sure whether warmer water is part of a natural cycle. "Global warming may make it so that we always have sardines in California," said oceanographer Jerrold Norton of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

A day after waking up to find a silvery carpet of dead fish on the surface of King Harbor, Redondo Beach set about the enormous task of ridding the marina of an estimated 1 million sardine carcasses before they started to decay. City officials said Wednesday that it would take days and cost at least $100,000 to clean up King Harbor after the sudden fish die-off that began Monday evening. The city declared a local emergency in an effort to obtain state and county aid for the cleanup.

History made Rosetta one of Egypt's best-known places, first as a major seaport for the Ottoman Empire, then as the city that gave its name to the Rosetta Stone, which yielded the key to ancient hieroglyphics. But the Rosetta of today hardly does justice to its rich past. Few pay any attention to its history and the sardines that once gave it wealth vanished 20 years ago--victims of the Aswan High Dam about 750 miles south. The town also languishes in worry about a destructive Mediterranean Sea, which took away its beach three years ago, swallowing up summer cabins and now threatening precious agricultural land.

The night is overcast, obscuring the stars and turning the Pacific black and glassy as the Endurance works its way south from San Pedro. Half a mile away, the lights of Huntington Beach twinkle. Pretty as they are, it's another kind of light Vince Lauro is looking for. Lauro is skipper of the 57-foot fishing boat and, since this is fall, he's hunting for sardines.

Redondo Beach awoke Tuesday to find a carpet of death laid atop the water, as if Davy Jones himself had burped up a couple hundred years worth of lunches. Thousands of silvery sardines floated atop the King Harbor marina fin-to-fin, with hundreds of thousands more, perhaps millions, piled on the coppery bottom, 18 inches deep in some spots. If this was a natural event, as officials say it was, Mother Nature did not show her best face. The Southern California coast, and Los Angeles County harbors in particular, have suffered from time to time from poor water quality and chemical intrusions.

The catch of small, schooling fish such as sardines and anchovies should be cut in half globally and the amount left in the ocean doubled to protect the ecologically vital species from collapse, scientists say in a new report. The silvery species known as forage fish are harvested in huge numbers worldwide and are easy for fishermen to round up because they form dense schools, or "bait balls. " But wide fluctuations in their numbers make them especially vulnerable to overfishing, according to the report released Sunday by the Lenfest Forage Fish Task Force, a 13-member panel of scientists from around the world.

Marine officials were trying to determine Tuesday what caused thousands of sardines to turn up dead in Ventura Harbor, the second mass fish die-off in local marinas in as many months. Roughly 6 tons of the small silvery fish were found floating in the harbor early Monday. Officials said their initial theory is that the sardines died after using up all the oxygen in a corner of the harbor. The scene in Ventura Harbor — crews churning up the water with aerators and volunteers scooping nets full of fish up from the surface — was reminiscent of the cleanup effort in Redondo Beach six weeks ago when officials discovered a thick blanket of dead sardines coating King Harbor . Scientists are looking into whether the two die-offs share a common cause.

Even after they were scooped from waters off Redondo Beach, trucked across the city, hauled over the mountains and unloaded in the Mojave Desert 100 miles away, those dead sardines are still causing headaches. The Victorville organic composting company that accepted 175 tons of fish, which expired en masse in the King Harbor marina earlier this month, must now deal with concerns that a neurotoxin found in the sardines could contaminate their prized mulch. Dean Roberts, general manager of American Organics, said the powerful neurotoxin found in the sardines ?

Sardines that suffocated and died en masse this week in King Harbor have tested positive for a powerful neurotoxin that scientists believe  may have distressed 1 million or more fish off the Los Angeles coastline and caused them to swim chaotically into the Redondo Beach marina. Researchers still believe critically low oxygen levels, not the toxin or an algae bloom, caused the fish to suddenly die Monday night in the Redondo Beach marina. But the discovery of domoic acid in dead fish ?

A day after waking up to find a silvery carpet of dead fish on the surface of King Harbor, Redondo Beach set about the enormous task of ridding the marina of an estimated 1 million sardine carcasses before they started to decay. City officials said Wednesday that it would take days and cost at least $100,000 to clean up King Harbor after the sudden fish die-off that began Monday evening. The city declared a local emergency in an effort to obtain state and county aid for the cleanup.

Redondo Beach awoke Tuesday to find a carpet of death laid atop the water, as if Davy Jones himself had burped up a couple hundred years worth of lunches. Thousands of silvery sardines floated atop the King Harbor marina fin-to-fin, with hundreds of thousands more, perhaps millions, piled on the coppery bottom, 18 inches deep in some spots. If this was a natural event, as officials say it was, Mother Nature did not show her best face. The Southern California coast, and Los Angeles County harbors in particular, have suffered from time to time from poor water quality and chemical intrusions.

Snooki's in, Snooki's out, Snooki's in again ... but in New Jersey. Maybe. That's pretty much how the news went this month for the diminutive Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi of MTV's "Jersey Shore," who supposedly was going to be inside the New Year's Eve ball drop in Times Square. Except organizers said that was never going to happen. So Snooki will be in a ball drop of her own in Seaside Heights, N.J., according to People magazine. Whatev. There are plenty of quirkier things than Snooki to drop from on high on New Year's Eve. Here are my favorites, in no particular order, that might make a great travel destination for next year.

Marine officials were trying to determine Tuesday what caused thousands of sardines to turn up dead in Ventura Harbor, the second mass fish die-off in local marinas in as many months. Roughly 6 tons of the small silvery fish were found floating in the harbor early Monday. Officials said their initial theory is that the sardines died after using up all the oxygen in a corner of the harbor. The scene in Ventura Harbor — crews churning up the water with aerators and volunteers scooping nets full of fish up from the surface — was reminiscent of the cleanup effort in Redondo Beach six weeks ago when officials discovered a thick blanket of dead sardines coating King Harbor . Scientists are looking into whether the two die-offs share a common cause.

  After a recent trip to Las Vegas, there are two things deputy Food editor Betty Hallock still talks about: the white tigers at the Mirage and this beautifully layered sardine appetizer from L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon. "The fresh sardines were plump and juicy, and the concentrated tomato flavor of the concasse was rich and unctuous, offset by the vegetable crunch of slivers of cauliflower," she says. "I especially love the thin slice of butter on top -- amazing!" Sardines on toast Total time: About 1 hour Servings: 4 Note: Adapted from L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon.

This hippo pool lies 50 yards from a dining area at the Serengeti National Park river camp where Terry Powers and his fiancee, Jennifer Rusin, spent eight days last fall. Powers, of Irvine, said the big neighbors were not that neighborly. "You'd go to the water's edge and they'd grunt and jostle, as if saying, 'You think you're gonna come in here?' " He used a Nikon N65 for the shot.