California could have avoided salmon season shutdown. Did we learn nothing last time?

Photo: Fishing boats docked in Bodega Bay on Mar. 3, 2023. Photo by Martin do Nascimento, CalMatters

In summary

The salmon population crash of 2008 felt like an anomaly in an otherwise productive fishery in California. Fifteen years later, the West Coast is right back where it started. Have we learned nothing in 15 years?

—Sarah Bates

Guest Commentary

Sarah Bates fishes commercially from San Francisco. She works with other fishing advocates to protect ecosystems, marine resources and public access.

Fishery managers announced this week that salmon fishing in California and most of Oregon is completely closed this year. No weekend trips on the river, no local salmon on the barbecue, no opportunity to see your kid reel in a fish.

I fish salmon commercially from Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. You can see the Golden Gate Bridge from my boat, where Chinook have passed for millions of years on their journey from the ocean, through the bay and Delta, up the Sacramento River.

There is communal anticipation before the first trip of the summer, checking anchor winches and hydraulic hoses, safety equipment, leaders, weather reports. Boats are freshly painted and deck tanks for holding fish are installed.

Not this year – this year feels like a funeral.

Salmon and Dungeness crab are the backbone of the San Francisco fishing fleet. Other fisheries like black cod, shrimp, halibut, rockfish, anchovies and herring contribute, but salmon and crab pay the bills and keep us working year-round. Without our commercial and recreational salmon seasons, every fishing business in California will struggle to support our families this year – every captain, deckhand, fuel dock, buyer, processor, gear store, charter operation and marina involved in this $1.4 billion industry.

Fishing is inherently unpredictable – good years, bad years, the excitement of big fish, the anxiety of rough weather. I knew salmon populations had fluctuated from under 100,000 to millions over the last century. What no one expected was the complete closures of ocean salmon fishing in 2008 and 2009.

I was new to commercial fishing then, but I remember the shock from generational fishermen. I remember the hollowing out of our fleet and port infrastructure, the lost businesses and financial desperation in coastal communities. It was devastating, but followed by a decade of robust salmon fishing. The crash of 2008 felt like an anomaly in an otherwise productive fishery.

Fifteen years later, we are right back where we started. Have we learned nothing in 15 years? 

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Full article: California could have avoided salmon season shutdown. Did we learn nothing last time?