April 6, 2024 — On the docks at Pillar Point Harbor, fishing crews have been arriving with loads of freshly caught Dungeness crab.
The season is almost over, and this time of year the harbor would typically be bustling with crews preparing their vessels and gear for catching salmon. But this year, those in the fishing fleet of Half Moon Bay — as well as other California marinas — expect to catch very few, if any, of the popular fish.
The season typically runs from May to October, but California Chinook salmon populations have declined so severely in recent years that fishery authorities are considering whether to adopt severe restrictions this season or impose a ban on fishing altogether for the second consecutive year.
For those whose livelihoods revolve around catching salmon, the shutdown has brought hard times and widespread frustration.
“It’s devastating. It’s absolutely devastating,” said commercial fisherman Chris Pedersen. “They’re literally killing the salmon fleet.”
Pedersen, who is 64 and has been fishing for salmon since he was a boy, turned to other work over the past year to make ends meet. He has fiberglassed boats, delivered meals and built sheds at a horse ranch.
“You’ve got to do whatever you can to live,” he said.
As he prepared to unload the day’s catch from a 50-foot boat, Pedersen said that selling crab has brought him income but can’t make up for the loss of salmon.
Like other salmon fishers at Pillar Point, Pedersen lays much of the blame on California water managers, who he says send too much water to farms and cities and deprive rivers of the cold flows salmon need to survive. When salmon suffer, he said, “you’re robbing us as fishermen.”