California fishermen urge action after salmon fishing is canceled for second year in a row

California fishermen have spoken out against state water management policies after federal fishing officials canceled ocean salmon fishing season in the state for the second consecutive year, delivering a major blow to the fishing industry.

In a unanimous vote Wednesday, the Pacific Fishery Management Council − which is responsible for managing fisheries in federal waters along the West Coast − recommended closing all California commercial and recreational ocean salmon fisheries through the end of the year. Similar to last year's recommendations, the council said this year's closure will help conservation goals for salmon stocks.

“The forecasts for Chinook returning to California rivers this year are again very low,” council chair Brad Pettinger said in a statement Wednesday. “Despite improved drought conditions, the freshwater environment that contributed to these low forecasted returns may still be impacting the overall returns of Chinook.”

The closure will affect tens of thousands of jobs in the state's fishing industry, which was already devastated by last year's cancellation, according to the Golden State Salmon Association. It also marked the fourth year in the state's history salmon fishing has been closed; it was also canceled during the 2008 and 2009 seasons.

On Thursday, fishermen and seafood businesses said the closure is a disaster. They added that state and federal water policies have created unsustainable water diversions, resulting in low river flows that are too hot for salmon populations.

“State and federal water managers are devastating our rivers,” Scott Artis, executive director of the Golden State Salmon Association, said at a news conference Thursday. “They are removing vast amounts of water and creating lethally high temperatures in those rivers that are destroying salmon. If you kill all the baby salmon through California water policy, then two or three years later you aren’t going to have adults returning, or very few."

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California salmon populations depleted by drought, water diversion

Salmon stocks have been hurt by the state's multi-year drought and climate disruptions, including wildfires, algal blooms and ocean forage shifts, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The salmon population has also been reduced by rising river water temperatures in addition to a rollback of federal protections for waterways by the Trump administration.

The rollback was denounced by environmental and conservation groups but was considered a win for farmers. A recent study published in the scientific journal Communications Earth & Environment showed that a majority of the Colorado River’s diverted water goes to agriculture.

"Persistent overuse of water supplies from the Colorado River during recent decades has substantially depleted large storage reservoirs and triggered mandatory cutbacks in water use," the study says. "Water consumed for agriculture amounts to three times all other direct uses combined."

A February report by the Pacific Fishery Management Council found that only 6,160 fall-run Chinook wild salmon, also known as king salmon, returned to the upper Sacramento River in 2023 to spawn, according to the Golden State Salmon Association. That number was a dramatic decline from the average of more than 175,000 fish from 1996 to 2005.

The Golden State Salmon Association said fishery managers, during a presentation given to the salmon industry in February, predicted low ocean abundance of fall-run Chinook salmon in the ocean along the West Coast.

“After the closure last year, this decision is not an easy one to make,” California Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Charlton Bonham said in a statement Wednesday. “While we have been enjoying back-to-back rainy and wet winters this year and last, the salmon that will benefit from these conditions aren’t expected to return to California until around 2026 or 2027. The current salmon for this year’s season were impacted by the difficult environmental factors present three to five years ago.”

The Pacific Fishery Management Council's recommendation will go to the National Marine Fisheries Service for approval in May, according to the fish and wildlife department.

Fishermen urge for more flows in salmon river

In response to the Pacific Fishery Management Council's recommendation, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday that his administration was requesting another federal fishery disaster declaration. The declaration would provide financial support to communities that depend on salmon fishing, the governor's office said in a news release.

“Decades of climate extremes have severely impacted our salmon populations, and we’re taking action to address this crisis for the long-term," Newsom said in a statement. "We’ll continue working with the Biden Administration and Congress to ensure California’s fisheries and impacted communities are supported during this critical time."

The declaration request, which was sent to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo on Thursday, noted that the "expected closure of 2024 California salmon fisheries will result in loss of 100 percent of the direct revenue generated by these fisheries." It added that the state is projecting a loss of more than $47 million this year.

But fishermen and seafood businesses have put blame on state water policies and urged Newsom on Thursday to allow more water to be diverted to salmon waterways.

"If we want to prevent closures and if we want to ensure salmon have a sustainable future ... we need to demand and we need to get more flows in our salmon river," Artis said. "Governor Newsom, I'm begging you and I'm asking you to get flows in our rivers to save salmon and everybody indirectly and directly (who) relies on that fishery."