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- Commercial fishing for Chinook salmon is set to resume along the California coast this spring for the first time since 2022.
- After a three-year shutdown, fishery regulators will allow a season with strict limits.
Commercial fishers will be allowed to catch salmon along the California coast this year for the first time since 2022 after a rebound in fish numbers prompted regulators to end a three-year ban.
The long closure has hit the state’s fishing industry hard, driving many to leave their boats and look for other work. The resumption of fishing this spring will enable crews to catch restricted numbers of fall-run Chinook salmon on certain dates.
“The limited reopening is a lifeline. It gives you a little bit of money,” said Vance Staplin, executive director of the nonprofit Golden State Salmon Assn. But “they’re not getting enough to sustain their businesses the way it was prior to this shutdown, by any means.”
A sharp decline in the Chinook salmon population led to the ban on commercial fishing in 2023, 2024 and 2025, the longest shutdown in state history.
During the shutdown, some managed to stay in business by catching crabs or other fish, while others have left the state.
Chris Pedersen, a 66-year-old fisherman, said he could no longer make a living fishing out of Half Moon Bay after the closure in 2023, so he moved to Arizona and has been traveling to the Oregon coast to fish for salmon and tuna.
“Nobody can afford to fish in California,” Pedersen said. “A lot of the good fishermen have left.”
The federal government provided $20.6 million in disaster relief funds for California fishing communities affected by the 2023 closure. But for Pedersen, that amounted to $8,000, which he said was far from enough to cover his losses.
“It was terrible,” Pedersen said. “I put everything I have into my boat, and we don’t get to fish.”
Some have put their boats up for sale. Others who can no longer afford the upkeep and fees have abandoned boats or hauled them away to be demolished.
Captains of fishing boats on the California coast are bracing for salmon fishing to be severely restricted — or possibly canceled for a second year.
Sarah Bates, who runs a commercial fishing boat out of San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf, said the port has become “a pretty sad place” as many have turned to other work.
“We’ve lost a lot of people. And given a lot of factors in the industry, I’m not sure that those people will ever come back,” Bates said. “In the bigger scheme of things, I’m pretty worried that we’re losing our coastal communities, and we’re losing our ability to deliver marine protein to the people of California.”
Still, she is hopeful that the limited salmon season can provide a small boost to fishing businesses.
“It will certainly help, and there are a lot of us who are really excited to go catch fish again,” Bates said. “But this is not the sort of ‘We’re back, everything is golden again’ kind of season that we would really like to see.”
The Pacific Fishery Management Council, a body established by Congress that manages ocean fishing along the West Coast, voted Sunday to approve the reopening in California.
Fishermen in the San Francisco region will be allowed to catch a maximum of 160 Chinook per vessel during several open periods in May and August, and 100 on additional dates in September. Other regions will have different dates, but no commercial fishing will be permitted north of Mendocino County.
The plan also includes limits on the total number of Chinook that may be caught during the season.
“Salmon are part of the cultural fabric of California,” said Meghan Hertel, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “I’m delighted more Californians will have the opportunity to enjoy these magnificent fish whether that’s in the water, on the end of their fishing lines or on their dinner plates,”
The shutdown during 2023 and 2024 also affected recreational anglers and sportfishing charter boats. After a two-year closure, they were allowed to fish again last year for several days with strict limits.
Charter fishing crews in California harbors are preparing for recreational salmon fishing to reopen after a two-year shutdown. The fishing season this year is subject to strict limits.
Biologists say salmon have declined due to a combination of factors, including dams, which have blocked off spawning areas, the loss of vital floodplain habitat and global warming, which is intensifying droughts and causing warmer temperatures in rivers.
The fish suffered their latest decline during the severe 2020-22 drought, when water flowing from dams sometimes got so warm that it killed salmon eggs.
Salmon hatch in rivers and creeks, then travel to the sea, where they live for about three years before returning, swimming upriver to their natal streams to spawn. During the last three years, the fish have benefited from wet winters and larger river flows. The wet winter of 2023, in particular, was a big help.
The reopening of the fishing season is a good sign that the health of the state’s rivers is improving, said Wade Crowfoot, California’s natural resources secretary. “It demonstrates nature is resilient and it can rebound.”
For decades, government-run hatcheries in the Central Valley have reared and released millions of salmon each year to help boost their numbers. Crowfoot said the state’s ongoing efforts are also helping to restore vital tidal habitat and remove barriers that hinder fish migration.
The latest data show “really strongly rebounding populations,” Crowfoot said. “It’s a big shot in the arm to all of us who are working to recover salmon across the state.”
California regulators will soon decide on a water plan for the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Environmental advocates warn that the proposal on the table will harm the ecosystem.
There are far fewer, however, than there were in the early 2000s.
Staplin, of the Golden State Salmon Assn., said the long fishing shutdown was a “man-made problem” and he blames Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration and the federal government for not ensuring sufficient river flows for salmon.
“Water is being prioritized for agriculture over fish. It’s that simple,” he said.
He pointed out that as salmon have suffered declines, California’s agriculture industry has been planting more nut orchards, which unlike field crops cannot be left fallow when water is scarce.
The state’s almond orchards have dramatically expanded since 2002 and now cover about 1.5 million acres, while pistachios have skyrocketed from about 100,000 acres in 2002 to more than 600,000 acres today.
“To me, we’re wiping out our natural habitat to grow snack food for export,” Staplin said. “This is not sustainable agriculture, where it’s at. And that, to me, is immoral.”
He said the state should adopt stronger rules to protect river flows so that salmon and other fish can recover.
The recently completed removal of dams on the Klamath River is raising hopes of rebuilding the population of threatened spring-run Chinook salmon.
Some who rely on fishing for their livelihood are hoping this year might mark the start of a long path toward regaining what they’ve lost. Bates, for example, said she thinks California should be able to rebuild a healthy salmon population.
“There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done,” she said. “I hope that this is the beginning of an upward trend of fish coming out of the Sacramento River.”
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