FOSTER CITY - Commercial and recreational fishing for salmon will be banned this year in marine waters off California and most of Oregon due to historically low fall-run Chinook salmon returns to the Sacramento and Klamath watersheds last year.
On April 6, the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) unanimously voted to recommend a full closure of the recreational and commercial fishing season, based on the low ocean salmon abundance estimates and low returns to the rivers.
“The forecasts for Chinook returning to California rivers this year are near record lows,” said Council Chair Marc Gorelnik in a statement. “The poor conditions in the freshwater environment that contributed to these low forecasted returns are unfortunately not something that the Council can, or has authority to, control.”
It is expected that the National Marine Fisheries Service will follow with regulatory action to enact the closure, effective in mid-May, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). The federal government in March already closed the recreational and commercial salmon fishing openers that were slated from early April to May 15.
In a teleconference on May 17, the California Fish and Game Commission is then expected to follow suit in adopting a closure of inland recreational salmon fisheries on the Sacramento, Feather, American and Mokelumne rivers.
While Governor Gavin Newsom and state officials blame the drought for the closure, anglers, commercial and recreational anglers and Tribal fishermen point to water policy that favors agribusiness water contractors over maintaining healthy salmon populations and ecosystems.
“This is a direct reflection on California’s water policy and an absolutely devastating blow for the thousands of families that rely on salmon to pay their rent and mortgages, and keep their life-sustaining businesses afloat,” said Scott Artis, executive director of Golden State Salmon Association (GSSA), in a statement. “Families across the State are already struggling with inflation so it is imperative that lawmakers immediately come to the aid of affected communities with disaster relief.”
But the CDFW claims that “prolonged and historic drought, severe wildfires and associated impacts to spawning and rearing habitat, harmful algal blooms, and ocean forage shifts have combined to result in some of the lowest stock abundance forecasts on record for Sacramento River Fall Chinook and Klamath River Fall Chinook.”
“This decision, while difficult, is intended to allow salmon to recover in order to provide future fishing opportunities. Salmon are an iconic species in California,” said California Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Charlton H. Bonham in a statement. “We treasure them for their intrinsic, cultural, recreational and commercial values. The state is committed to ensuring long-term survival of our salmon runs and supporting our struggling fishing communities.”
“We are looking into all possible options to bring relief as soon as possible to fishing businesses to addresses costs incurred to maintain their commercial licenses and lost revenue when the season is entirely closed,” he noted.
John McManus, policy director for the Golden State Salmon Association, emphasized the economic hardship that the closure will bring up and down the coast.
“This is the time of year when we usually start bringing salmon to market or home to put on the family dinner table,” said John McManus, senior policy director for GSSA. “Instead, families up and down the coast, and some inland, are very worried about how they’re going to pay the bills this year in a disaster that could have, and should have, been avoided.”
This closure is the second time that salmon fishing has been closed in California - the first was in 2008-2009. The decision was made due to low numbers of adult and two-year-old jack salmon that have survived the hostile conditions they’ve encountered in Central Valley rivers in recent years, said McManus.
“All of these rivers are controlled by upstream dam operations,” said McManus. “Dam operation decisions favoring agriculture over salmon survival have resulted in very poor natural salmon reproduction in recent years because lethal hot water left after dam releases for agriculture have killed incubating salmon eggs. In addition, strong releases of water in the spring needed to wash baby salmon safely out of the Central Valley to the ocean have been diverted or withheld.”
In February, the PFMC estimated that a total of 169,800 Sacramento Basin fall run Chinook salmon are now in the ocean, but this estimate could be overly optimistic. Last year federal fishery managers estimated that more than 180,000 fall run salmon would return to spawn but less than 62,000 actually returned to the Sacramento River and tributaries.
Fishery managers typically allow fishing that will still achieve a minimum goal of 122,000 salmon to spawn in the Sacramento Basin, but they’ve increased that target number in recent years, McManus added.
After the PFMC recommended a full closure, Governor Gavin Newsom announced his administration's request for a Federal Fishery Disaster Declaration to support impacted communities.
“Countless families, coastal communities and tribal nations depend on salmon fishing – it’s more than an industry, it’s a way of life. That’s why we’re requesting expedited relief from the federal government,” said Governor Newsom. “We’re committed to working with the Biden Administration and Congress to ensure California’s fisheries aren’t left behind.”
Although anglers are glad that Newsom is requesting federal fishery disaster relief, they point out that he is continuing to move forward with the Delta Tunnel, along with the voluntary water agreements and the construction of Sites Reservoir. These water projects will only drive imperiled salmon fisheries closer and closer to extinction, according to salmon advocates.
Meanwhile, you can expect increased fishing pressure this year upon rockfish and lingcod stocks, California halibut, striped bass and other fish species, due to the salmon closure.
Currently, California’s salmon industry is valued at $1.4 billion in economic activity and 23,000 jobs annually in a normal season and contributes approximately $700 million to the economy and supports more than 10,000 jobs in Oregon. Industry workers benefiting from Central Valley salmon stretch from Santa Barbara to northern Oregon. This includes commercial fishermen and women, recreational fishermen and women (fresh and salt water), fish processors, marinas, coastal communities, equipment manufacturers, the hotel and food industry, tribes, and others.