America’s Last Sardine Factory Closes Its Doors

It is a sign of the times. On April 18, the last package of domestically processed and canned sardines will roll off the conveyor belt. Employees will turn off the lights and silence will descend upon the once lively factory floor. It is the end of an industry.

For the last 128 employees, it is an end of a way of life, an end that once would have seemed unthinkable.

Prospect Harbor, Maine, was once a thriving center of fish packaging. Over 50 factories had operations in the city—some of which dated back to the 1870s. Multiple generations of families worked in the plants. Canned fish were shipped all across the United States. And Prospect Harbor wasn’t alone. It was just one hub in a national industry.

Add sardine canning to the death of American manufacturing.

In fact, there is only one sardine processing plant left in all of North America—a new modern factory in Canada. Beyond that, if you eat sardines, they will have been processed overseas and imported.

According to the New York Times, the cannery is one of the last vestiges of Maine’s industrial past. Various archivists and historians have been given access to document the inner workings of the Prospect Harbor plant in order to preserve this soon-to-be-extinct history. For whom the history is to be preserved is not clear, since most Americans place little value on manufacturing these days.

The Times cited several factors in the closing, including federal regulations, which have reduced the number of herring, or unprocessed sardines, that can be caught. Competition from lower-cost canneries in other countries like China and Thailand and less demand from U.S. consumers were also cited.

For information on why America is losing its manufacturing base, read “The Death of American Manufacturing.” And for more analysis on America’s collapsing fishing industry, read “Where Have All the Fish Gone?”