Between 2002 and 2005 in the southeast of Isla Margarita, 168,204 t of sardines were caught, it was the most important fishing ground in the country. Since 2006, catches have decreased significantly. They consider that due to the increase in water temperature, the schools do not approach the coast, where they are fished with beach seine nets, which is discussed being the objective of the work. For 17 years (2002-2018) at night (6:30 to 10:00 pm), biweekly water samples (1 and 20 m) were obtained and the temperature was measured with a digital thermometer, which ranged between 21.6 and 30.5° C. In the period 2002 to 2004 were the largest captures of the resource (average 84,679 t/year) and in the water column (20 m) the annual temperature varied between 24.65 and 25.33 °C (average 25.09 °C); In 2005 the catches decreased to 44,772 t and the average temperature was 26.22 °C; In the period from 2006 to 2015, fishing was low (range 3,185 to 9,437 t) and the average temperature varied between 25.76 and 27.03 °C. In 2016 and 2017, sardine catches increased (average 46,651 t) and the highest temperatures of 27.26 and 27.54 °C were also recorded. Between 2002 and 2018, the average temperature increased < 2 °C and it is doubtful that it is the only cause of the sardine shortage in the fishing ground. It is proposed that the schools that are captured in Margarita come from the state of Sucre, where it is possible that overfishing occurs with questioned fishing gear (purse seines) and captures juveniles, affecting the recruitment, fishing and sustainability of the resource. It is suggested to study the abundance of picoplankton, as a probable cause of the sardine shortage.
