Hopes run high for salmon season
At Monterey Fish Market on Pier 33, one San Francisco fisherman alone brought in 300 pounds of salmon on Monday, the first day of the Bay Area commercial salmon season. That haul was, in coowner Tom Worthington’s words, a good omen for the much-delayed start of the season. Yet it’s still too early to say what the rest of the season, which wraps up Sept. 30, will bring.
“They were nice, super sweet-lookin’ fish,” said Worthington, who said that they were a “beautiful” size, about 15 pounds on average. But, he added, “I’m not writing the end of the book on this one yet. It could have just been a great day for him.”
Though the season normally opens in May, San Francisco commercial fishermen have had to wait three months longer than usual to head to their normal stomping grounds because of a low population of chinook salmon on the coast. The area between Pigeon Point (San Mateo County) and Point Arena (Mendocino County) was off limits to commercial fishermen until Monday, though the coast south of Pigeon Point was open in May and June.
According to Larry Collins of the San Francisco Commu-
nity Fishing Association, the larger fishing boats he works with report getting 20 to 50 medium-size fish a day.
Most boats won’t come back for a few more days, so salmon probably won’t start showing up in the markets until the weekend. Those on the water reported calm seas and low winds.
“We are still out. No reason to come home when the weather is so nice and the anchorage is so close,” said Sarah Bates, who fishes out of San Francisco.
Because this season’s adult ocean salmon were born during the drought, their estimated population is one of the lowest in years. State and federal scientists say there are only about 230,000 ocean salmon this summer, compared with more than a million in a good year; commercial and recreational operations are permitted to catch only a portion of the estimated population each season.
Despite those low estimates, recreational fishing boats have been doing surprisingly well, leading to optimism that more local fish will make it into restaurants and stores soon — and they should be full of flavor.
“This time of year, when you get into August, they’re really rich because they’re feeding on anchovies and sardines,” said Mike Weinberg-Lynn, the owner of Osprey Seafood, which has a wholesale operation at Fisherman’s Wharf and a retail store in Napa.
Weinberg-Lynn expects that retail prices will be high at first — around $30 per pound — but will probably drop to the $25 range after about 10 days. At that point, he thinks there could be a bit of a glut, based on reports of salmon abundance from recreational anglers, whose season started in April.
“I expect it to drop to almost a ‘normal level’ from a few years back,” Weinberg-Lynn said, referring to the fact that prices have been high for the last few years, so the new normal remains much higher than most shoppers are used to.
Worthington of Monterey Fish isn’t convinced that the recreational fishing boats’ success is a sign of a good commercial season, because they catch so many fewer fish.
Yet there is a lot riding on getting some good news, since businesses have struggled financially over the past few years of very limited salmon and Dungeness crab seasons.
“We’re optimistic, like most fish people,” Worthington said, laughing. “Until we’re pessimistic.”