A WARM DECADE IN THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BIGHT

The year 1992 in the Southern California Eight is embedded in a 17-yea r warm anomaly which is the longest in the 1922-94 period. The length of the warm anomaly may make it more useful for studying the effects o f global change on fish with generation times of 5 years than the usua l ENSO event lasting 1-3 years. The trend since 1985 of zooplankton vo lume and anchovy spawning biomass has been downward, and that of sardi ne has been upward. Although the trends in the growth rates of fish po pulations can be observed, the causes result from the combined effects of the environment in the absence of a significant fishery. Directed, long-term, process-oriented research on the anchovy and the more subt ropical sardine is needed to ''explain'' differences in population gro wth rates: incidental data from static monitoring and fish stock asses sment are necessary but will not likely be sufficient to construct com bined effects of temperature and zooplankton on population growth rate s of sardine and anchovy.