The anchovy population off California is conservatively estimated as between 2 and 2 ? million tons. Department, University, and Federal scientists, cooperatively, have recommended a long-range program consisting of three phases initially calling for a controlled anchovy harvest of 200,000 tons a year for 3 years. The commercial fishery is interested in the program because they see it as a solution to many of their problems. Sport fishermen are opposed because they fear a "repeat of the sardine and Pacific mackerel debacle.? The bio-political problems are brought into sharp focus when the Department attempts to fulfill its responsibility be recommending management practices to appropriate state governmental bodies and runs head-on into the special, and usually conflicting, interests of the sportsmen and commercial fishermen. The resolution to these conflicts is the bio-political problem faced by the Department, the Fish and Game Commission and the Legislature. One must remember that the best scientific information available cannot result in a sound management program unless the political climate will permit its use.
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