Saving Seafood

CALIFORNIA: California salmon season faces potential third-year closure

March 11, 2025 — California’s Chinook salmon population continues to decline, prompting concerns over a possible third consecutive closure of the state’s commercial and recreational salmon fishing season.

In April, the Pacific Fishery Management Council will decide whether to impose a limited fishing season or enforce a complete shutdown to facilitate stock recovery.

Recent estimates from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife indicate approximately 166,000 Sacramento River fall-run Chinook salmon currently in the ocean, a decrease from the preseason estimate of 214,000 last year and comparable to the 2023 estimate of 169,000. These numbers reflect a significant drop from the robust salmon population observed in California’s river over a decade ago.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

El Niño Yields to Upwelling in the California Current, Renewing Productivity of West Coast Ecosystem

March 10, 2025 — According to the NOAA California Current Integrated Ecosystem Assessment’s annual report, the California Current Ecosystem pulled out of a strong El Niño pattern in 2024. That El Niño delayed the onset of the annual spring upwelling of nutrient-laden water that, was nevertheless strong enough to fuel the rich West Coast ecosystem and improv environmental conditions  for salmon.

NOAA Fisheries scientists presented the report to the Pacific Fishery Management Council to inform upcoming decisions on fishing seasons. The report provides a snapshot of ocean conditions, fish population abundance and habitat, and fisheries landings and fishing communities’ conditions. It gives short-term forecasts and longer term projections of how conditions across the ecosystem may evolve in 2025 and beyond.

Report Highlights

  • Upwelling resumed even more strongly and consistently than normal, supplying a greater influx of nutrient-rich waters that improved forage conditions for many species
  • Productive waters supported abundant forage speciessuch as anchovy and krill and strong production of young hake and juvenile rockfish that could contribute to commercial fisheries in future years
  • Improved freshwater streamflows should support survival of juvenile salmon migrating downstream in California to the ocean
  • California sea lions found enough prey amid the El Niño warming, while experiencing harmful algal blooms that led to premature birth of pups and strandings along the coast

“Each year we learn more about how this marine ecosystem functions and what we should be watching to anticipate change,” said Andrew Leising, a research oceanographer at NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center who coauthored the new report. “We’re getting better at forecasting what is coming at us, at the same time we see some new twists.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

‘I’m Heartbroken’: California Scientists Left Adrift by Mass Federal Layoffs at NOAA

March 6, 2025 — Many in California’s science community are reeling after last week’s mass firings within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration upended workers’ lives and raised dire concerns for the climate agency’s work going forward.

At least seven people, including National Weather Service employees and staff at the National Marine Fisheries Service, or NOAA Fisheries, lost their jobs along the Central Coast.

Their stories are similar and heart-wrenching. The early-career federal workers are planning marriages, recently signed mortgages and were saving to buy their first homes. But last Thursday, they got an email saying they were “not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge, and/or skills do not fit the agency’s current needs” — many of them before their supervisors even knew.

Read the full article KQED

Endangered California Coho Salmon Experience Record-Breaking Spawning Season on Mendocino Coast

March 5, 2025 — Last winter, endangered Central California Coast coho salmon (CCC coho) returned to Mendocino Coast rivers and streams in the highest numbers since monitoring began 16 years ago. Monitoring led by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to track their population status estimated more than 15,000 adult CCC coho returned to spawn during the 2023–24 season. The Ten Mile and Noyo rivers exceeded recovery targets set by NOAA for delisting CCC coho under the Endangered Species Act, and the Big and Garcia rivers experienced record returns.

While the overall numbers remain low compared to the species’ past abundance, NOAA scientists are excited by the results.

“I remember in the 1990s monitoring streams where water temperatures were too hot for CCC coho and lacking in structure, and I thought they would never come back in my lifetime,” says NOAA San Joaquin River Branch Chief Jonathan Ambrose. “I’ve been at NOAA Fisheries for 25 years, and we’ve changed the trajectory for CCC coho salmon. A lot of people think it’s too late—it’s too hard to bring back endangered species. This is a prime example of why it’s not too late or too hard.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries 

The fight to preserve America’s working waterfronts

February 26, 2025 — The National Working Waterfront Network (NWWN) Conference brought together policymakers, industry leaders, and community advocates to tackle the challenges facing working waterfronts across the country.

Through many panel discussions, attendees explored the pressures of development, workforce retention, climate adaptation, and policy roadblocks threatening the waterfront’s future.

While each waterfront is unique, the speakers agreed that these spaces share common challenges, including regulatory hurdles, rising property values, and conflicts between economic development and cultural preservation. The panelists included Janelle Kellman, former mayor of Sausalito, California- who is running for lieutenant governor and Maine House of Representative; Morgan Rielly; and Imani Black, founding and CEO of Minorities in Aquaculture.

Kellman highlights her city’s maritime history and difficulties maintaining its working waterfront. “We have a real problem regarding what the market will allow. Inventors or fabricators cannot afford to start when hedge fund managers and landscape architects see the value in our maritime infrastructure. They want to repurpose it for high-end development.”

Rielly pointed to the diversity of working waterfronts in Maine, ranging from small-scale fishing docks to large industrial harbors. “There’s no one bill that will be able to solve all different issues, and there will be no one budget that will be able to solve those issues.” He went on to emphasize the need for tailored solutions for each individual region.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

CALIFORNIA: California’s 2024 fall Chinook runs worse than expected

February 25, 2025 — Fall Chinook salmon runs in 2024 in the Sacramento River and Klamath River watersheds in the U.S. state of California were far smaller than expected, according to new data from the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC).

Regulators forecast a fall run of more than 180,000 adult chinook salmon returning to the Sacramento River Basin in 2024, but the PFMC’s recently published review of West Coast fisheries estimated a run of fewer than 100,000 fish.

The Klamath River fall run also underperformed the pre-season forecast. According to the PFMC estimate, only 36,568 adult fall chinook returned to the Klamath River in 2024 compared to a prediction of 65,138 adults.

California salmon runs have been impacted by several environmental and climate-related challenges.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

CALIFORNIA: California policymakers say they’re undeterred by Trump opposition to offshore wind

February 24, 2025 — Despite resistance from the Trump White House, California government officials and administrators at the state’s ports say they are still going full-speed ahead on offshore wind projects.

“Now more than ever, California needs to be the hand around that candle of hope and keep the momentum going” for the state to reach its ambitious wind energy goals, David Hochschild, chair of the California Energy Commission, said at a symposium Friday in Long Beach.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and state policymakers expect offshore wind to generate as much as 5 gigawatts of power by 2030 and 25 gigawatts by 2045. For perspective, the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant in San Luis Obispo produces 2.2 gigawatts of capacity, which accounts for about 9% of the state’s power mix each year.

Five companies collectively bid $751.1 million in December 2022 to win the leases to build wind farms off the coasts of Morro Bay in Central California and Humboldt Bay in Northern California. When completed, each project that covers tens of thousands of acres will be located at least 20 miles from the mainland, in federal waters.

But on his first day in office, President Donald Trump issued a review of leasing and permitting practices for all wind energy projects in the U.S. and called for a temporary withdrawal of all areas on the outer Continental Shelf from offshore wind leasing.

“We acknowledge new uncertainties in federal policies and we have important work ahead of us to understand where that federal policy is actually headed and what the implications are for California,” said Jana Ganion, Newsom’s senior adviser for offshore wind.

Read the full article at The San Diego Union-Tribune

CALIFORNIA: A ‘perfect storm’ of environmental and political issues is driving Santa Cruz fishers out of the water

February 20, 2025 — Would Santa Cruz still be Santa Cruz without a fishing industry? After nine rocky years of delayed, shortened and outright canceled fishing seasons, the coastal community could soon have to face a cultural reckoning as the number of commercial fishing boats active in the Santa Cruz Harbor dwindles to fewer than 20.

For generations, fishers along California’s Central Coast have relied on two primary catches to make their living: Dungeness crab in the winter and Chinook salmon in the summer.

But over the past nine years, this traditional rhythm has been disrupted by a cascade of environmental challenges. Migrating whales are lingering in crabbing areas longer, contributing to delayed seasons and reduced catch limits, while droughts and fluctuating river levels have decimated salmon populations.

The impact on Santa Cruz County’s commercial fishers has been profound. The state’s salmon fishery has been closed since 2023, with little sign of recovery, while the crab season has been shortened and restricted for the past six years.

Read the full article at Lookout Santa Cruz

Conservationists sue feds to protect Pacific Northwest salmon populations

February 19, 2025 — Conservation groups filed a lawsuit Tuesday morning against the National Marine Fisheries Service for missing its deadline to determine if spring-run Chinook salmon in Oregon, Washington, and Northern California warranted protection under the Endangered Species Act. The organizations behind the lawsuit seek a court order to compel the Fisheries Service to issue a finding within a suitable time frame.

“These iconic fish are at risk of disappearing from our coastal rivers forever if the Service doesn’t act quickly,” Jeremiah Scanlan, a legal fellow at the Center for Biological Diversity, said. “Spring-run Chinook salmon badly need protections, but instead, the agency has taken the lazy river approach and drifted past its own deadlines.”

The Center for Biological Diversity, Native Fish Society, Umpqua Watersheds, and Pacific Rivers claim the Fisheries Service violated federal law when it failed to issue a timely finding within 12 months of their petition asking for three Chinook salmon populations to be listed as “threatened” or “endangered” — the Oregon Coast Chinook salmon, the Southern Oregon and Northern California Coastal Chinook salmon, and the Washington Coast spring-run Chinook salmon.

“The agency’s failure to meet the deadlines delays crucial, lifesaving protections for these species, increasing their risk of extinction,” the groups said in their lawsuit.

Chinook salmon, also known as “king salmon,” are the largest of all Pacific salmon species. Although the fish were once abundant in the river basins of the Pacific Northwest, their populations have declined sharply in recent years and are now only a fraction of their historical size.

Read the full article at Courthouse News Service

CALIFORNIA: California loves Dungeness crab. But concerns over whale safety put industry in peril

February 10, 2025 — It was a calm January morning, the waters off Bodega Bay unusually smooth, but crab fisherman Dick Ogg couldn’t shake a grim feeling that the day wouldn’t go his way.

The Dungeness crab season had opened just a few weeks earlier — two months behind schedule — and was off to a slow start. “We’re working very hard to basically get nothing,” said Ogg.

The anemic hauls so early in the season mark the latest setback for California’s commercial Dungeness crab fishery, a roughly $45-million-a-year industry that delivers one of the state’s most iconic culinary delights.

The industry’s future has been complicated by another celebrated sea creature: Each year, a number of humpback whales migrating through California’s waters to and from tropical breeding grounds get entangled in commercial crab fishing gear, encounters that often end in mutilation or death. State regulators are intent on lowering the chances of whales coming into contact with the gear.

There’s reason to be concerned.

Since 1970, when the federal government listed humpback whales as “endangered” after they were hunted to near extinction, the population has made a fragile comeback. Whales along the West Coast have recovered at an estimated annual rate of 8.2% since the 1980s, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with more than 4,500 humpback whales now feeding off California’s coast.

Read the full article at LA Times