Latest news with #PacificFisheryManagementCouncil
E&E News
15-05-2025
- Climate
- E&E News
NOAA finalizes California salmon fishery closure for third year
NOAA Fisheries will close or constrain fishing for salmon off the southern Oregon and California coasts for the 2025-26 fishing season, citing 'anticipated extremely low returns of California Chinook stocks,' the agency announced this week. Fishing will be allowed in between central Oregon and northern Washington. The new provisions — which also establishes quotas, landing limits and other management measures for salmon — were recommended by the Pacific Fishery Management Council in April and underwent public review and comment, according to NOAA. Recreational fishing will also be limited under the new rule. Advertisement 'This will reduce impacts to stocks of concern until they rebound to levels that can support further fishing opportunities,' the agency said in a notice. For now, regulators said, 'forecasts of lower adult salmon returns in southern Oregon and California required managers and fishermen to make tough choices in developing fishing regimes for these areas.'
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
California commercial salmon season is shut down — again. Will the state's iconic fish ever recover?
A Chinook salmon is seen in an undated photo. (Photo by Ryan Hagerty/USFWS) This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Facing the continued collapse of Chinook salmon, officials today shut down California's commercial salmon fishing season for an unprecedented third year in a row. Under the decision by an interstate fisheries agency, recreational salmon fishing will be allowed in California for only brief windows of time this spring. This will be the first year that any sportfishing of Chinook has been allowed since 2022. Today's decision by the Pacific Fishery Management Council means that no salmon caught off California can be sold to retail consumers and restaurants for at least another year. In Oregon and Washington, commercial salmon fishing will remain open, although limited. 'From a salmon standpoint, it's an environmental disaster. For the fishing industry, it's a human tragedy, and it's also an economic disaster,' said Scott Artis, executive director of the Golden State Salmon Association, an industry organization that has lobbied for river restoration and improved hatchery programs. The decline of California's salmon follows decades of deteriorating conditions in the waterways where the fish spawn each year, including the Sacramento and Klamath rivers. California's salmon are an ecological icon and a valued source of food for Native American tribes. The shutdown also has an economic toll: It has already put hundreds of commercial fishers and sportfishing boat operators out of work and affected thousands of people in communities and industries reliant on processing, selling and serving locally caught salmon. California's commercial fishery has never been closed for three years in a row before. Some experts fear the conditions in California have been so poor for so long that Chinook may never rebound to fishable levels. Others remain hopeful for major recovery if the amounts of water diverted to farms and cities are reduced and wetlands kept dry by flood-control levees are restored. This year's recreational season includes several brief windows for fishing, including a weekend in June and another in July, or a quota of 7,000 fish. Jared Davis, owner and operator of the Salty Lady in Sausalito, one of dozens of party boats that take paying customers fishing, thinks it's likely that this quota will be met on the first open weekend for recreational fishing, scheduled for June 7-8. 'Obviously, the pressure is going to be intense, so everybody and their mother is going to be out on the water on those days,' he said. 'When they hit that quota, it's done.' One member of the fishery council, Corey Ridings, voted against the proposed regulations after saying she was concerned that the first weekend would overshoot the 7,000-fish quota. Davis said such a miniscule recreational season won't help boat owners like him recover from past closures, though it will carry symbolic meaning. 'It might give California anglers a glimmer of hope and keep them from selling all their rods and buying golf clubs,' he said. It continues to be devastating. Salmon has been the cornerstone of many of our ports for a long time. – Sarah Bates, commercial fisher based in San Francisco Sarah Bates, a commercial fisher based at San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf, said the ongoing closure has stripped many boat owners of most of their income. 'It continues to be devastating,' she said. 'Salmon has been the cornerstone of many of our ports for a long time.' She said the shutdown also has trickle-down effects on a range of businesses that support the salmon fishery, such as fuel services, grocery stores and dockside ice machines. 'We're also seeing a sort of a third wave … the general seafood market for local products has tanked,' such as rockfish and halibut. She said that many buyers are turning to farmed and wild salmon delivered from other regions instead. Davis noted that federal emergency relief funds promised for the 2023 closure still have not arrived. 'Nobody has seen a dime,' he said. Before the Gold Rush, several million Chinook spawned annually in the river systems of the Central Valley and the state's northern coast. Through much of the 20th century, California's salmon fishery formed the economic backbone of coastal fishing ports, with fishers using hook and line pulling in millions of pounds in good years. But in 2024, just 99,274 fall-run Chinook — the most commercially viable of the Central Valley's four subpopulations — returned to the Sacramento River and its tributaries, substantially lower than the numbers in 2023. In 2022, fewer than 70,000 returned, one of the lowest estimates ever. About 40,000 returned to the San Joaquin River. Fewer than 30,000 Chinook reached their spawning grounds in the Klamath River system, where the Hoopa, Yurok and Karuk tribes rely on the fish in years of abundance. The decline of California's salmon stems from nearly two centuries of damage inflicted on the rivers where salmon spend the first and final stages of their lives. Gold mining, logging and dam construction devastated watersheds. Levees constrained rivers, turning them into relatively sterile channels of fast-moving water while converting floodplains and wetlands into irrigated farmland. Today, many of these impacts persist, along with water diversions, reduced flows and elevated river temperatures that frequently spell death for fertilized eggs and juvenile fish. Peter Moyle, a UC Davis fish biologist and professor emeritus, said recovery of self-sustaining populations may be possible in some tributaries of the Sacramento River. 'There are some opportunities for at least keeping runs going in parts of the Central Valley, but getting naturally spawning fish back in large numbers, I just can't see it happening,' he said. Jacob Katz, a biologist with the group California Trout, holds out hope for a future of flourishing Sacramento River Chinook. 'We could have vibrant fall-run populations in a decade,' he said. That will require major habitat restoration involving dam removals, reconstruction of levee systems to revive wetlands and floodplains, and reduced water diversions for agriculture — all measures fraught with cost, regulatory constraints, and controversy. There are some opportunities for at least keeping (salmon) runs going in parts of the Central Valley, but getting naturally spawning fish back in large numbers, I just can't see it happening. – Peter Moyle, UC Davis fish biologist State officials, recognizing the risk of extinction, have promoted salmon recovery as a policy goal for years. In early 2024, the Newsom administration released its California Salmon Strategy for a Hotter, Drier Future, a 37-page catalogue of proposed actions to mitigate environmental impacts and restore flows and habitat, all in the face of climate change. California Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Charlton H. Bonham said the decision to allow limited recreational fishing 'brings hope. We know, however, that this news brings little relief' to the industry. He said salmon 'are still recovering from severe drought and other climate challenges and have not yet benefitted from our consecutive years of wet winters and other actions taken to boost populations.' However, Artis of Golden State Salmon Association said while the state's salmon strategy includes some important items, it leaves out equally critical steps, such as protecting minimum flows for fish. He said salmon are threatened by proposed water projects endorsed by the Newsom administration. 'It fails to include some of the upcoming salmon-killing projects that the governor is pushing like Sites Reservoir and the Delta tunnel, and it ignores the fact that the Voluntary Agreements are designed to allow massive diversions of water,' he said. Experts agree that an important key to rebuilding salmon runs is increasing the frequency and duration of shallow flooding in riverside riparian areas, or even fallow rice paddies — a program Katz has helped develop through his career. On such seasonal floodplains, a shallow layer of water can help trigger an explosion of photosynthesis and food production, ultimately providing nutrition for juvenile salmon as they migrate out of the river system each spring. Through meetings with farmers, urban water agencies and government officials, Rene Henery, California science director with Trout Unlimited, has helped draft an ambitious salmon recovery plan dubbed 'Reorienting to Recovery.' Featuring habitat restoration, carefully managed harvests and generously enhanced river flows — especially in dry years — this framework, Henery said, could rebuild diminished Central Valley Chinook runs to more than 1.6 million adult fish per year over a 20-year period. He said adversaries — often farmers and environmentalists — must shift from traditional feuds over water to more collaborative programs of restoring productive watersheds while maintaining productive agriculture. As the recovery needle for Chinook moves in the wrong direction, Katz said deliberate action is urgent. 'We're balanced on the edge of losing these populations,' he said. 'We have to go big now. We have no other option.' This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
California commercial salmon season is shut down again
Fall-run Chinook salmon migrate and spawn in the Feather River near state infrastructure and the Feather River Fish Hatchery in Oroville, on Oct. 28, 2024. (Photo by Xavier Mascareñas/ California Department of Water Resources) This story was originally published by CalMatters. Facing the continued collapse of Chinook salmon, officials this week shut down California's commercial salmon fishing season for an unprecedented third year in a row. Under the decision by an interstate fisheries agency, recreational salmon fishing will be allowed in California for only brief windows of time this spring. This will be the first year that any sportfishing of Chinook has been allowed since 2022. The decision by the Pacific Fishery Management Council means that no salmon caught off California can be sold to retail consumers and restaurants for at least another year. In Oregon and Washington, commercial salmon fishing will remain open, although limited. 'From a salmon standpoint, it's an environmental disaster. For the fishing industry, it's a human tragedy, and it's also an economic disaster,' said Scott Artis, executive director of the Golden State Salmon Association, an industry organization that has lobbied for river restoration and improved hatchery programs. The decline of California's salmon follows decades of deteriorating conditions in the waterways where the fish spawn each year, including the Sacramento and Klamath rivers. California's salmon are an ecological icon and a valued source of food for Native American tribes. The shutdown also has an economic toll: It has already put hundreds of commercial fishers and sportfishing boat operators out of work and affected thousands of people in communities and industries reliant on processing, selling and serving locally caught salmon. California's commercial fishery has never been closed for three years in a row before. Some experts fear the conditions in California have been so poor for so long that Chinook may never rebound to fishable levels. Others remain hopeful for major recovery if the amounts of water diverted to farms and cities are reduced and wetlands kept dry by flood-control levees are restored. This year's recreational season includes several brief windows for fishing, including a weekend in June and another in July, or a quota of 7,000 fish. Jared Davis, owner and operator of the Salty Lady in Sausalito, one of dozens of party boats that take paying customers fishing, thinks it's likely that this quota will be met on the first open weekend for recreational fishing, scheduled for June 7-8. 'Obviously, the pressure is going to be intense, so everybody and their mother is going to be out on the water on those days,' he said. 'When they hit that quota, it's done.' One member of the fishery council, Corey Ridings, voted against the proposed regulations after saying she was concerned that the first weekend would overshoot the 7,000-fish quota. Davis said such a miniscule recreational season won't help boat owners like him recover from past closures, though it will carry symbolic meaning. 'It might give California anglers a glimmer of hope and keep them from selling all their rods and buying golf clubs,' he said. Sarah Bates, a commercial fisher based at San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf, said the ongoing closure has stripped many boat owners of most of their income. 'It continues to be devastating,' she said. 'Salmon has been the cornerstone of many of our ports for a long time.' She said the shutdown also has trickle-down effects on a range of businesses that support the salmon fishery, such as fuel services, grocery stores and dockside ice machines. 'We're also seeing a sort of a third wave … the general seafood market for local products has tanked,' such as rockfish and halibut. She said that many buyers are turning to farmed and wild salmon delivered from other regions instead. Davis noted that federal emergency relief funds promised for the 2023 closure still have not arrived. 'Nobody has seen a dime,' he said. Before the Gold Rush, several million Chinook spawned annually in the river systems of the Central Valley and the state's northern coast. Through much of the 20th century, California's salmon fishery formed the economic backbone of coastal fishing ports, with fishers using hook and line pulling in millions of pounds in good years. But in 2024, just 99,274 fall-run Chinook — the most commercially viable of the Central Valley's four subpopulations — returned to the Sacramento River and its tributaries, substantially lower than the numbers in 2023. In 2022, fewer than 70,000 returned, one of the lowest estimates ever. About 40,000 returned to the San Joaquin River. Fewer than 30,000 Chinook reached their spawning grounds in the Klamath River system, where the Hoopa, Yurok and Karuk tribes rely on the fish in years of abundance. The decline of California's salmon stems from nearly two centuries of damage inflicted on the rivers where salmon spend the first and final stages of their lives. Gold mining, logging and dam construction devastated watersheds. Levees constrained rivers, turning them into relatively sterile channels of fast-moving water while converting floodplains and wetlands into irrigated farmland. Today, many of these impacts persist, along with water diversions, reduced flows and elevated river temperatures that frequently spell death for fertilized eggs and juvenile fish. Peter Moyle, a UC Davis fish biologist and professor emeritus, said recovery of self-sustaining populations may be possible in some tributaries of the Sacramento River. 'There are some opportunities for at least keeping runs going in parts of the Central Valley, but getting naturally spawning fish back in large numbers, I just can't see it happening,' he said. Jacob Katz, a biologist with the group California Trout, holds out hope for a future of flourishing Sacramento River Chinook. 'We could have vibrant fall-run populations in a decade,' he said. That will require major habitat restoration involving dam removals, reconstruction of levee systems to revive wetlands and floodplains, and reduced water diversions for agriculture — all measures fraught with cost, regulatory constraints, and controversy. State officials, recognizing the risk of extinction, have promoted salmon recovery as a policy goal for years. In early 2024, the Newsom administration released its California Salmon Strategy for a Hotter, Drier Future, a 37-page catalogue of proposed actions to mitigate environmental impacts and restore flows and habitat, all in the face of climate change. California Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Charlton H. Bonham said the decision to allow limited recreational fishing 'brings hope. We know, however, that this news brings little relief' to the industry. He said salmon 'are still recovering from severe drought and other climate challenges and have not yet benefitted from our consecutive years of wet winters and other actions taken to boost populations.' However, Artis of Golden State Salmon Association said while the state's salmon strategy includes some important items, it leaves out equally critical steps, such as protecting minimum flows for fish. He said salmon are threatened by proposed water projects endorsed by the Newsom administration. 'It fails to include some of the upcoming salmon-killing projects that the governor is pushing like Sites Reservoir and the Delta tunnel, and it ignores the fact that the Voluntary Agreements are designed to allow massive diversions of water,' he said. Experts agree that an important key to rebuilding salmon runs is increasing the frequency and duration of shallow flooding in riverside riparian areas, or even fallow rice paddies — a program Katz has helped develop through his career. On such seasonal floodplains, a shallow layer of water can help trigger an explosion of photosynthesis and food production, ultimately providing nutrition for juvenile salmon as they migrate out of the river system each spring. Through meetings with farmers, urban water agencies and government officials, Rene Henery, California science director with Trout Unlimited, has helped draft an ambitious salmon recovery plan dubbed 'Reorienting to Recovery.' Featuring habitat restoration, carefully managed harvests and generously enhanced river flows — especially in dry years — this framework, Henery said, could rebuild diminished Central Valley Chinook runs to more than 1.6 million adult fish per year over a 20-year period. He said adversaries — often farmers and environmentalists — must shift from traditional feuds over water to more collaborative programs of restoring productive watersheds while maintaining productive agriculture. As the recovery needle for Chinook moves in the wrong direction, Katz said deliberate action is urgent. 'We're balanced on the edge of losing these populations,' he said. 'We have to go big now. We have no other option.' This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
U.S. panel calls for suspending commercial salmon fishing in California for third year
Fishery regulators on Tuesday called for shutting down commercial salmon fishing along the California coast for an unprecedented third year in a row in an effort to help the declining population of Chinook salmon recover. The Pacific Fishery Management Council, a body established by Congress that manages ocean fishing along the West Coast, voted 13 to 1 to recommend banning all commercial salmon fishing off California, a decision the National Marine Fisheries Service is expected to adopt in May. As part of the vote, held at a meeting in San Jose, the council called for allowing some limited recreational salmon fishing for the first time since 2022. The ocean recreational fishing season will be restricted to several days in the summer and fall, and the total catch will also be strictly limited. The suspension of fishing for the last two years has brought major losses of income for those in the fishing industry, but some salmon boat skippers agree that extending the closure is needed. "We need to do everything we can to save the species," said Kevin Butler, a commercial fisherman in Santa Cruz. The fishing season typically runs from May to October, and in recent years the state's commercial salmon fishing fleet has numbered about 460 vessels. But many boat owners and crew members have recently turned to other work to make ends meet. Some have put their boats up for sale. Butler said salmon previously represented about three-fourths of his income. He has continued fishing for halibut and lingcod, earning much less. "Every fisherman has sacrificed everything for two years," Butler said. He said that for himself and others, being unable to catch salmon has meant 'insane financial hardship, stressing of your family's relationships, everything.' 'If the majority of your income disappeared, what would you do? Go find a new career? Well, that's a tough one for fishermen. We've fished our whole life,' he said. 'This is a life, this is a love.' Although severe drought from 2020-22 contributed to the decline, those who work in fishing also blame California's water managers and policies for the low salmon numbers, saying too much water has been pumped to farms and cities, depriving rivers of sufficient cold water at the times salmon need it to survive. 'It's a water mismanagement issue,' Butler said. He blamed Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration, saying the state has prioritized water supplies for the $59-billion agriculture industry to the detriment of salmon. Biologists say salmon populations have declined because of a combination of factors including dams, which have blocked off spawning areas, the loss of vital floodplain habitats, and global warming, which is intensifying droughts and causing warmer temperatures in rivers. During the severe 2020-22 drought, the water flowing from dams sometimes got so warm that it was lethal for salmon eggs. And because salmon typically feed in the ocean for about three years and then return to their natal streams, the decline in the numbers of surviving juvenile fish during the drought left a reduced population of adult fish. The state's policy of pumping heavily from rivers is "killing entire salmon runs, and it's beating down hardworking men and women trying to make a living from fishing," said Scott Artis, executive director of Golden State Salmon Assn., a nonprofit group that represents fishing communities. "This closed commercial and token recreational fishing season is a human tragedy, as well as an economic and environmental disaster." He said his group is asking for "a little cold water to be left in our rivers for baby salmon so they can survive and return as adults." Read more: Low salmon numbers in California could prompt shutdown of fishing for a record third straight year State officials said that in addition to drought and global warming, salmon populations have been struggling because of wildfires, poor conditions in rivers, algae blooms and problems of thiamine deficiency in salmon linked to shifts in their ocean diet. 'Salmon populations are still recovering from severe drought and other climate challenges and have not yet benefited from our consecutive years of wet winters and other actions taken to boost populations," said Charlton 'Chuck' Bonham, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. 'After years of full closure for salmon fishing, the opportunity for limited recreational salmon fishing brings hope. We know, however, that this news brings little relief for California's commercial salmon fisheries.' Coastal salmon fishing was banned for two consecutive years once before, in 2008 and 2009. This is the first time the commercial season is set to be canceled for three years straight. The Pacific Fishery Management Council cited the latest state estimates showing the number of Sacramento River fall-run Chinook salmon remains very low, with an estimated 166,000 fish in the ocean this year — down from a preseason estimate of 214,000 last year, and similar to the 2023 estimate of 169,000 fish. Those figures represent a drop from the much larger numbers of salmon, in some years more than 1 million fish, that teemed along California's Pacific coast in the early 2000s. 'It's another unambiguous signal that salmon are declining in California, alongside many of the other native fishes,' said Andrew Rypel, director of Auburn University's fisheries school and former director of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. 'It's really very sad. I think it's an indicator of how we've managed the resource over time, and that we're failing salmon.' The shutdown of fishing has taken a toll not only on the commercial fishing fleet but also on operators of charter fishing boats who were unable to fish for salmon in 2023 and 2024. Under the council's decision, recreational anglers are set to be allowed limited ocean fishing under state-administered quotas in two windows in the summer and fall, the first of which is set to open June 7-8 and allow for up to 7,000 salmon to be caught. State regulators also set rules for inland recreational fishing on rivers, and the California Fish and Game Commission will decide this year's season at meetings this month and in May. Before the shutdown, Jared Davis used to earn much of his income leading sportfishing tours out of Sausalito on his 56-foot boat Salty Lady. Lately, he has been turning to other types of cruises, leading whale watching tours and holding ash-scattering burials at sea. "It hurts that the salmon fishing has been shut down. It definitely hurts," Davis said. "I just did my taxes and my deckhand made more than I did over these last couple years." Read more: As salmon populations struggle, California bans fishing on rivers for a second year He said he supports the planned regulations, which he views as a conservative approach to help the population recover. The fishing industry depends on fall-run Chinook, which migrate upstream to spawn from July through December. Other salmon runs have suffered more severe declines. Spring-run Chinook are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and winter-run Chinook are endangered. The pattern that has emerged in successive droughts is a long-term, 'stair-step' decline, in which salmon and other species suffer a drop during dry years and then fare somewhat better during wetter times, but their numbers don't come back up to what they were previously, Rypel said. Because the fish largely have a three-year life cycle, the population should improve somewhat next year because of the boost they received during 2023's historic wet winter, Rypel said, but in the long term, the fish are still struggling. Changes that would help salmon include having larger flows in rivers at the right times to support fish, and opening up more floodplain habitats to support their recovery, Rypel said. For decades, government-run hatcheries in the Central Valley have reared and released millions of salmon each year to help boost their numbers. State officials say the Newsom administration's ongoing efforts to help salmon populations recover include restoring tidal habitats, modernizing infrastructure, removing barriers that hinder fish migration and reintroducing salmon in traditional spawning areas upstream from dams. Despite those efforts, the situation facing California's salmon remains so dire, Rypel said, that agencies should be taking more chances to prevent the fish from suffering even larger declines. 'It is a huge emergency,' he said. 'We need to be trying big things at this point, big experiments." Rypel said he feels for the people whose livelihoods have been upended by the fishing closures. 'It's always been a California way of life, and it's very much in jeopardy,' he said. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
16-04-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
U.S. panel calls for suspending commercial salmon fishing in California for third year
Fishery regulators on Tuesday called for shutting down commercial salmon fishing along the California coast for an unprecedented third year in a row in an effort to help the declining population of Chinook salmon recover. The Pacific Fishery Management Council, a body established by Congress that manages ocean fishing along the West Coast, voted 13 to 1 to recommend banning all commercial salmon fishing off California, a decision the National Marine Fisheries Service is expected to adopt in May. As part of the vote, held at a meeting in San Jose, the council called for allowing some limited recreational salmon fishing for the first time since 2022. The ocean recreational fishing season will be restricted to several days in the summer and fall, and the total catch will also be strictly limited. The suspension of fishing for the last two years has brought major losses of income for those in the fishing industry, but some salmon boat skippers agree that extending the closure is needed. 'We need to do everything we can to save the species,' said Kevin Butler, a commercial fisherman in Santa Cruz. The fishing season typically runs from May to October, and in recent years the state's commercial salmon fishing fleet has numbered about 460 vessels. But many boat owners and crew members have recently turned to other work to make ends meet. Some have put their boats up for sale. Butler said salmon previously represented about three-fourths of his income. He has continued fishing for halibut and lingcod, earning much less. 'Every fisherman has sacrificed everything for two years,' Butler said. He said that for himself and others, being unable to catch salmon has meant 'insane financial hardship, stressing of your family's relationships, everything.' 'If the majority of your income disappeared, what would you do? Go find a new career? Well, that's a tough one for fishermen. We've fished our whole life,' he said. 'This is a life, this is a love.' Although severe drought from 2020-22 contributed to the decline, those who work in fishing also blame California's water managers and policies for the low salmon numbers, saying too much water has been pumped to farms and cities, depriving rivers of sufficient cold water at the times salmon need it to survive. 'It's a water mismanagement issue,' Butler said. He blamed Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration, saying the state has prioritized water supplies for the $59-billion agriculture industry to the detriment of salmon. Biologists say salmon populations have declined because of a combination of factors including dams, which have blocked off spawning areas, the loss of vital floodplain habitats, and global warming, which is intensifying droughts and causing warmer temperatures in rivers. During the severe 2020-22 drought, the water flowing from dams sometimes got so warm that it was lethal for salmon eggs. And because salmon typically feed in the ocean for about three years and then return to their natal streams, the decline in the numbers of surviving juvenile fish during the drought left a reduced population of adult fish. The state's policy of pumping heavily from rivers is 'killing entire salmon runs, and it's beating down hardworking men and women trying to make a living from fishing,' said Scott Artis, executive director of Golden State Salmon Assn., a nonprofit group that represents fishing communities. 'This closed commercial and token recreational fishing season is a human tragedy, as well as an economic and environmental disaster.' He said his group is asking for 'a little cold water to be left in our rivers for baby salmon so they can survive and return as adults.' State officials said that in addition to drought and global warming, salmon populations have been struggling because of wildfires, poor conditions in rivers, algae blooms and problems of thiamine deficiency in salmon linked to shifts in their ocean diet. 'Salmon populations are still recovering from severe drought and other climate challenges and have not yet benefited from our consecutive years of wet winters and other actions taken to boost populations,' said Charlton 'Chuck' Bonham, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. 'After years of full closure for salmon fishing, the opportunity for limited recreational salmon fishing brings hope. We know, however, that this news brings little relief for California's commercial salmon fisheries.' Coastal salmon fishing was banned for two consecutive years once before, in 2008 and 2009. This is the first time the commercial season is set to be canceled for three years straight. The Pacific Fishery Management Council cited the latest state estimates showing the number of Sacramento River fall-run Chinook salmon remains very low, with an estimated 166,000 fish in the ocean this year — down from a preseason estimate of 214,000 last year, and similar to the 2023 estimate of 169,000 fish. Those figures represent a drop from the much larger numbers of salmon, in some years more than 1 million fish, that teemed along California's Pacific coast in the early 2000s. 'It's another unambiguous signal that salmon are declining in California, alongside many of the other native fishes,' said Andrew Rypel, director of Auburn University's fisheries school and former director of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. 'It's really very sad. I think it's an indicator of how we've managed the resource over time, and that we're failing salmon.' The shutdown of fishing has taken a toll not only on the commercial fishing fleet but also on operators of charter fishing boats who were unable to fish for salmon in 2023 and 2024. Under the council's decision, recreational anglers are set to be allowed limited ocean fishing under state-administered quotas in two windows in the summer and fall, the first of which is set to open June 7-8 and allow for up to 7,000 salmon to be caught. State regulators also set rules for inland recreational fishing on rivers, and the California Fish and Game Commission will decide this year's season at meetings this month and in May. Before the shutdown, Jared Davis used to earn much of his income leading sportfishing tours out of Sausalito on his 56-foot boat Salty Lady. Lately, he has been turning to other types of cruises, leading whale watching tours and holding ash-scattering burials at sea. 'It hurts that the salmon fishing has been shut down. It definitely hurts,' Davis said. 'I just did my taxes and my deckhand made more than I did over these last couple years.' He said he supports the planned regulations, which he views as a conservative approach to help the population recover. The fishing industry depends on fall-run Chinook, which migrate upstream to spawn from July through December. Other salmon runs have suffered more severe declines. Spring-run Chinook are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and winter-run Chinook are endangered. The pattern that has emerged in successive droughts is a long-term, 'stair-step' decline, in which salmon and other species suffer a drop during dry years and then fare somewhat better during wetter times, but their numbers don't come back up to what they were previously, Rypel said. Because the fish largely have a three-year life cycle, the population should improve somewhat next year because of the boost they received during 2023's historic wet winter, Rypel said, but in the long term, the fish are still struggling. Changes that would help salmon include having larger flows in rivers at the right times to support fish, and opening up more floodplain habitats to support their recovery, Rypel said. For decades, government-run hatcheries in the Central Valley have reared and released millions of salmon each year to help boost their numbers. State officials say the Newsom administration's ongoing efforts to help salmon populations recover include restoring tidal habitats, modernizing infrastructure, removing barriers that hinder fish migration and reintroducing salmon in traditional spawning areas upstream from dams. Despite those efforts, the situation facing California's salmon remains so dire, Rypel said, that agencies should be taking more chances to prevent the fish from suffering even larger declines. 'It is a huge emergency,' he said. 'We need to be trying big things at this point, big experiments.' Rypel said he feels for the people whose livelihoods have been upended by the fishing closures. 'It's always been a California way of life, and it's very much in jeopardy,' he said.
