1972 Peruvian anchoveta crisis information

During the 1972 fishing season, Peruvian fisheries who largely depended on catching Peruvian anchovetas, a species of anchovy, faced a crisis in which the previously abundant population of anchovetas began to heavily deplete as a result of overfishing from previous seasons and as a result of that year's strong El Niño current. The 1972 catch was significantly smaller than the previous couple years, and the years that followed continued to be significantly smaller than the 1970 and 1971 catches. This resulted in a major collapse of the fishing industry in Peru during the 1970s, causing a great impact on the Peruvian economy and in worldwide availability of fish meal and protein-high feedstocks.