Does anyone else remember when there were about 20 sardines to the can? Now there's four. What's that about?
Y2K, Bruce, Y2K. There was a huge run on sardine stocks when everyone thought the world was going to stop working on Jan.1, 2000. All the 20-to-a-can sardines got bought up and all that was left was the 4-to-a-can size. Nobody has fished for sardines since 1999 so the 4-to-a-can size is all you can find nowadays.
Nobody really eats the damned things anyway. They only buy them for emergencies like hurricanes. Then, when the all-clear signal is given, the sardines get fed to cats. Cats don't care how many fish are in the can.
When enough 4-to-a-can sardines have been eaten by cats someone will send a boat out to catch some more sardines and the 20-to-a-can size will be available until the next disaster impends.