No salmon for 2nd straight year
Recreational and commercial salmon fishing in the ocean will be closed again this year in California. The Pacific Fishery Management Council voted unanimously to close the season in the state Wednesday, citing low counts of salmon.
The complete closure is just the fourth in California's history. In a release, the council said that ocean salmon fisheries in California and parts of Oregon are limited by low abundance of Klamath River and Sacramento
River fall Chinook — higher than last year but well below historic counts. A February council report noted the average number of fallrun Chinook wild salmon returning to the upper Sacramento to spawn was 6,160, compared with 175,000 fish between 1996-2005.
The closure follows a crummy year for commercial fishermen in Northern California, and for many, it will mean months without income. The closure is expected to include rivers soon, later to be decided by the California Fish and Game Commission.
Most of the commercial fishing fleet in Humboldt County fish for salmon, traveling to other parts of the state or Oregon to catch fish. Aaron Newman, captain of Maria Isabel was going out crabbing Thursday. Normally he'd be switching his gear to salmon, but he said he's still crabbing because there's no salmon season.
“We'll either have to find a land job or find some other fishery to rely on,” he said.
He added it's hard because the longline sablefish and albacore markets aren't great. He said it will impact the entire local economy, including charter boats.
The Newsom administration requested another Federal Fishery
Disaster Declaration in the wake of the decision, the office announced Thursday. Funds were announced as available for fishermen in February for the canceled 2023 season.
Harrison Ibach, president of Humboldt Fisherman's Marketing Association, said he hasn't heard of anyone getting a check.
“There's been no financial help or financial support yet,” he said.
Disaster funding historically takes years to reach fishermen.
He said the closure will be a big blow for the fleet after a middling crab season. He said after
last year's closure, quite a few fishermen are interested in selling their boats but it's almost impossible to sell a boat right now.
North Coast U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) called for quicker disaster relief.
“But we must also acknowledge that this scramble for federal fishery disaster funds is not the solution to the terrible downward spiral for California salmon fisheries. The solution is to prevent fishery disasters. That requires confronting wrongheaded policies that are killing salmon — failing to protect cold water supplies, starving rivers and tributaries of flows salmon need to survive, and overpumping in the Delta during sensitive times for migrating salmon,” Huffman said in a prepared statement.
A Wednesday news release from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said California salmon were impacted by a multi-year drought, severe wildfires, and associated impacts to spawning and rearing habitat, harmful algal blooms and ocean forage shifts.
The Governor's office cited climate change and dams in a Thursday release.
“Decades of climate extremes have severely impacted our salmon populations, and we're taking action to address this crisis for the long term. We'll continue working with the Biden Administration and Congress to ensure California's fisheries and impacted communities are supported during this critical time,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom in a prepared statement.
However, the Golden State Salmon Association attributed water allocations as the culprit. In a press conference Thursday in San Francisco, Sarah Bates, a commercial salmon troller from the Golden State Salmon Association said, “we're making hard sacrifices for the next generation of fish and we're making the hard decisions about the harvest. Now we need the California water managers to make some sacrifices on their own.”
Scott Artis, executive director for the Golden State Salmon Association said the group is asking Newsom for a seat at the table with water management — especially asking for flow and temperature restrictions to be enforced. He attributed the shutdowns to a failure on the state's part to protect salmon eggs from warm water caused by what he says are excessive agricultural diversions.
The Golden State Salmon Association estimates a healthy California salmon industry is valued at $1.4 billion in economic activity and 23,000 jobs annually.
In January, Newsom announced a plan to return salmon populations, largely by fast-tracking dam removal including removing the Scott Dam and replacing the Cape Horn Dam along the Eel River. Historically, Newsom has championed voluntary water agreements with farmers, according to reporting by The Associated Press.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council's recommendations will be forwarded to the National Marine Fisheries Service for approval by May 16. Salmon fishing across California was previously closed in 2008 and 2009.