Fishing boats would normally fan out along the California coast to catch Chinook salmon in the spring, but regulators have announced the fishing season will be shut down this year.
A salmon caught by Karuk Tribe member Ron Reed using a traditional dipnet sits on the banks of the Klamath River in Siskiyou County. Federal and state officials have announced California's ocean salmon fishing season will be canceled for all of 2023.
“This whole situation is really depressing,” said Sarah Bates, who fishes with a commercial boat and usually sells her catch through a community fishing association in San Francisco. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife said the estimated number of 3-year-old adults that are likely to return to the Sacramento River this year to spawn is less than 170,000, one of the lowest forecasts in the 15 years that officials have been using their current assessment method.
“This is incredibly sad,” McManus said. “There’s thousands of people in California and in Oregon both that rely on Central Valley salmon to make a living.” State officials have pointed out that declines in salmon populations typically follow dry years, and have said they are prioritizing efforts to rebuild fish populations.
When salmon return to California rivers to spawn, they lay their eggs in gravel nests in streambeds. The juvenile fish migrate to the Pacific, often returning in three years to complete the cycle. In the Sacramento River, other salmon runs are at risk. Spring-run Chinook are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, while winter-run Chinook are endangered.
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