So Long Sardines

Photo: Ignotus the Mage/Flickr

The last sardine factory in Maine closes its doors this week.  Stinson Seafood, based in Prospect Harbor, Maine, was the final cannery standing in Vacationland….and for that matter, the entire United States.  An Associated Press article explains that nearly 400 canneries have come and gone in the past 135 years.  Bumble Bee Foods which acquired Stinson in 2004 blames the factory’s demise on the New England Fishery Management Council’s catch restrictions.   It’s estimated that 130 workers will lose their jobs.

Federal regulations are easy to blame but how about analyzing a shift in our seafood palate?

I wonder: how many of you eat sardines?  Once an American lunchtime staple, I don’t know how important the small silvery fish are in today’s culinary world.   I for one cannot stomach (or sniff) them.  Never.  But I’m just one set of taste buds.

Do you love these little fish? Or does this closing point towards a shift in the American palate?

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About Jessica Alpert

Associate Producer, Here & Now Most recently, Jessica worked as an associate producer at WBUR's daily local program, Radio Boston. Jessica moved to Boston in 2008 and has lived many places since leaving her native Texas. After graduating from college, Jessica worked as a federal employee, documentary film festival producer, oral historian, university teaching assistant, traveling saleswoman and klezmer musician. Her work and projects have appeared in The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, Bust, Barnard Magazine, National Public Radio, Public Radio International (PRI), and the BBC. Jessica's freelance radio work has received various awards including accolades from the Religion Newswriters Association and the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. As a Fulbright Scholar in El Salvador, Jessica collected and studied oral histories from the Jewish Community based in San Salvador. Jessica received her B.A. in political science from Columbia University’s Barnard College and her M.A. in history from Indiana University. She learned how to make radio from the phenomenal folks at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. Jessica lives in Somerville with her husband, twin son and daughter, and two cats. To learn more about Jessica’s projects, both current and past, please visit www.jessicaalpert.com.

2 thoughts on “So Long Sardines”

  1. Craig

    I gre up with them when I was a kid. I’m 55 now. My dad and i would have them for lunch on the weekend. Usually the large ones in toamato sauce from DelMonte but sometimes the small sardines in oil from King Oscar. No one I know likes them so I don’t get them that much. I need to buy them myself.