In summary
Federal officials have moved to cancel commercial and recreational salmon fishing in California because the fish are still not thriving.
In a devastating blow to California’s fishing industry, federal fisheries managers voted unanimously today to cancel all commercial and recreational salmon fishing off the California coast for the second year in a row.
The decision was designed to protect California’s dwindling salmon population after drought and water diversions left river flows too warm and sluggish for the state’s iconic Chinook salmon to thrive.
Salmon abundance forecasts for the year are “too low,” Marci Yaremko, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s appointee to the Pacific Fishery Management Council, said last week. “As precipitation and snowpacks improve, the stocks and their habitats only need another year to recover.”
State and federal agencies are now expected to enforce ocean fishing closures. If the season isn’t in question again this year, recreational boats probably are already fishing off the coast of California, while the commercial season usually runs from May to October.
In addition, the California Fish and Game Commission will decide next month whether to cancel inland salmon fishing in California rivers this summer and fall.
The closure means California restaurants and consumers will have to look elsewhere for salmon, in a major blow to an industry estimated in recent years to be worth about half a billion dollars.
“It’s a disaster,” said Tommy “TF” Graham, a commercial fisherman based in Bodega Bay who now drives a truck that delivers frozen and farmed salmon and other fish. “It means another summer of being forced to do something you don’t want to do, instead of doing something you do want.”
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About 213,600 Sacramento River fall-run salmon — a mainstay of the fishery — are estimated to swim inshore. While that’s an improvement over last year, the forecast remains the second-lowest on record since the fishery was closed in 2008 and 2009, Yaremko told the Pacific fisheries council.
This year’s numbers, along with the fact that forecasts for salmon returning to spawn are regularly overestimated, “add to the concern,” Yaremko said.
Many in the fishing industry say they support the closure, but have urged state and federal officials to do more to improve conditions in rivers that salmon rely on. Fishing advocates and environmentalists criticized the administration of Gov. Gavin Newsom for failing to prioritize water quality and flows to protect salmon in the important Bay-Delta watershed.
“Our fishing fleets and coastal communities are not the only ones making sacrifices to save these fish,” said Sarah Bates, who owns a commercial fishing boat called the Bounty, docked at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco . “Water policy must take seriously the health of our river ecosystems.”
The closure comes as the fishing industry is still awaiting disaster relief promised from last year’s salmon fishery closures, which state officials estimate cost about $45 million. The fishing industry says that’s a gross understatement.
“Some fishermen have already lost their businesses and many will in the coming months,” said RJ Waldron, who runs a charter fishing business out of the East Bay. Last year’s closing dried up his customers, and he put his sportfishing boat up for sale a few months ago.
“My dream of being a charter boat owner is now a nightmare.”
