SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Federal fishery managers voted Sunday to open waters off the coast of California to commercial salmon fishing for the first time since 2022, with the population rebounding after wet winters ended a long drought.
The decision by the Pacific Fishery Management Council to allow limited commercial and recreational salmon fishing off the coast is a win for the state's salmon fishing industry, which has grappled with years of season closures due to dwindling fish stocks. The council, which manages fisheries off the West Coast, barred commercial salmon fishing off California for the past three years. It voted last year to allow some recreational fishing for the first time since 2022.
The council is an advisory group to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, which makes the final decision but historically has followed the council’s rulings. The secretary’s decision will be posted in the Federal Register within days.
“It is great news for everyone — for the fishermen, for seafood lovers and the environment because it means that salmon populations are back to a much healthier state,” California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said ahead of the decision.
The federal council has said forecasts for Chinook and coho salmon off the West Coast look promising this year, though the season will open with some restrictions.
Recreational fishing along a stretch of the coast spanning about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of San Francisco to the Mexican border already began this month, according to the Golden State Salmon Association. Sportfishing to the north, including in waters off San Francisco, will begin in June. Commercial fishing along the coast will begin in May.
The council voted to limit commercial fishing to only a few days and set quotas for the number of salmon that can be caught.
Biologists say the Chinook salmon population declined dramatically after years of drought, disrupting the fish's migration upstream to lay their eggs. Many in the fishing industry say rules from the first Trump administration also allowed more water to be diverted from the Sacramento River Basin to agriculture. That caused even more harm by increasing river temperatures and dropping water levels when baby salmon were trying to make it from their spawning beds to the ocean.
But recent wet winters have brought in more cold water, which the fish need to spawn.
Salmon populations have also bounced back in areas where they were long absent due to river restoration efforts, Crowfoot said.
After four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River were removed in 2024, salmon returned to spawn in waters along the Oregon-California border where they hadn't for decades. The state has since removed barriers that prevented the passage of salmon in other waterways, including on Alameda Creek in the San Francisco Bay Area, Crowfoot said.
Much of the salmon caught in the ocean originate in California’s Klamath and Sacramento rivers. After hatching in freshwater, they spend three years on average maturing in the Pacific, where many are caught by commercial fishermen, before migrating back to their spawning grounds, where conditions are more ideal to give birth. After laying eggs, they die.
Preserving a healthy salmon population is crucial for the environment and the state's economy, Crowfoot said.
“Salmon are an iconic species in California and critically important to our tribal communities and our fishing sector,” he said.
Vance Staplin, executive director of the Golden State Salmon Association, largely blamed state and federal water management policies for low salmon stocks in recent years. The fishing season closures had a large impact on the state’s fishermen, bait shops and companies that make fishing equipment, he said.
“People don’t understand how big of an industry salmon is to California,” he said.
FILE - Mike Hudson unloads chinook salmon off his boat at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco on July 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)
