Commercial fishing crews will be permitted to catch salmon along the California coast this year for the first time since 2022 as regulators plan to end a three-year shutdown after seeing an increase in the struggling salmon population.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council, a body established by Congress that manages ocean fishing along the West Coast, is expected to vote Sunday on a plan that will reopen the salmon fishing season under strict limits in California.
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.
The state’s fishing industry has been hit hard by the shutdown, which has driven many to leave their boats and look for other work. The planned resumption of fishing this spring will enable crews to catch limited 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. “They’re not getting enough to sustain their businesses the way it was prior to this shutdown, by any means.”
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. Those fishing in other regions will be given different dates.
The plan also includes limits on the total number of fall-run Chinook salmon that may be caught during the season.
The suspension of commercial fishing has meant major losses of income for many in the business. Some have managed to get by catching crabs or other types of fish, while others have left the state.
Fisherman Chris Pedersen walks on a dock in Half Moon Bay in 2024. He left California after the shutdown of salmon fishing, saying he could no longer earn a living.
(Loren Elliott / Los Angeles Times)
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.
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 closure also affected recreational anglers and those with businesses operating sportfishing charter boats. After a two-year closure, the ocean recreational fishing season was allowed to reopen last year for several days under strict limits.
Biologists say salmon populations have declined due to 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.
The fish suffered their latest decline during the severe 2020-22 drought, when the water flowing from dams sometimes got so warm that it was lethal for salmon eggs.
Salmon typically feed in the ocean for about three years and then return 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 expected 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 habitats 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.”
The fall-run Chinook population, however, remains much smaller than it was 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, replacing other field crops that are easier to leave 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.
He said the state should adopt stronger rules to protect river flows so that salmon and other fish can recover.
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.”
