April 23, 2024 — More than 20 federal lawmakers from California have called on the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden to declare a fishery disaster following the closure of the state’s salmon season for the second consecutive year.
Earlier this month, the Pacific Fishery Management Council voted to close the 2024 commercial Chinook salmon fishery from the northern coast of the U.S. state of Oregon to the Mexico border. That closure is expected to go into effect in May.
April 17, 2024 — The commercial Dungeness crab fishing industry was closed early in central and southern California on April 8 because of entanglement risks from returning Humpback whales to state waters where they forage.
Traditionally, the Dungeness crab fishing season runs from November through June using vertical line fishing gear that spans from the surface to the seafloor.
Whales can get trapped in these vertical lines, including whales that are protected as endangered.
After whale entanglements spiked from 2015 to 2018, the Dungeness crab season has faced delay or closure since 2019.
Season closures are affecting the fishing business, but now during this closure, a handful of commercial fishermen such as Brand Little, are testing a whale-safe kind of fishing gear, called “pop-up” or “ropeless” fishing gear, hoping the state will authorize this alternative for use next season, so fishermen can still work.
Commercial fisherman Brand Little described how the first test of the spring season went with about 20 fishermen.
“They said it went remarkably well. Everything popped up, everything came back, they caught crabs and they’re like, this is so much better than putting the gear in the gear shed and quit making money. We still have a couple months left in our statutory season, so this isn’t as great as the way we normally do it, but this is better than nothing,” Little said.
April 14, 2024 — For Zack Robinson, fishing isn’t just a job.
“The ocean’s my life,” he said.
Robinson has been gill-netting for 15 years, catching halibut and seabass.
“Gill netting is my passion. I love it. There are a lot of misconceptions about net fishing. It’s not a dirty fishery like they say it is. We are not the bad guys, and that hurts, to work so hard and to be told you’re no good,” Robinson said.
He says that if Assembly Bill 2220 passes, it would threaten his livelihood.
April 14, 2024 — California fishermen have spoken out against state water management policies after federal fishing officials canceled ocean salmon fishing season in the state for the second consecutive year, delivering a major blow to the fishing industry.
In a unanimous vote Wednesday, the Pacific Fishery Management Council − which is responsible for managing fisheries in federal waters along the West Coast − recommended closing all California commercial and recreational ocean salmon fisheries through the end of the year. Similar to last year’s recommendations, the council said this year’s closure will help conservation goals for salmon stocks.
“The forecasts for Chinook returning to California rivers this year are again very low,” council chair Brad Pettinger said in a statement Wednesday. “Despite improved drought conditions, the freshwater environment that contributed to these low forecasted returns may still be impacting the overall returns of Chinook.”
April 14, 2024 — California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced Thursday he was requesting a federal fishery disaster declaration, after regional supervisors recommended a full closure of ocean salmon season for the second year in a row.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council — which oversees fishing along the Washington, Oregon and California coasts — voiced unanimous support on Wednesday for shuttering California’s commercial and recreational chinook salmon fisheries through the end of the year.
These recommendations are similar to those made in 2023, which was the first time such a closure occurred in 14 years.
“The forecasts for chinook returning to California rivers this year are again very low,” council Chair Brad Pettinger said in a Wednesday statement.
April 11, 2024 — In a devastating blow to California’s fishing industry, federal fishery managers unanimously voted today to cancel all commercial and recreational salmon fishing off the coast of California for the second year in a row.
The decision is designed to protect California’s dwindling salmon populations after drought and water diversions left river flows too warm and sluggish for the state’s iconic Chinook salmon to thrive.
Salmon abundance forecasts for the year “are just too low,” Marci Yaremko, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s appointee to the Pacific Fishery Management Council, said last week. “While the rainfall and the snowpacks have improved, the stocks and their habitats just need another year to recover.”
State and federal agencies are now expected to implement the closures for ocean fishing. Had the season not been in question again this year, recreational boats would likely already be fishing off the coast of California, while the commercial season typically runs from May through October.
April 8, 2024 — With humpback whales heading back to their feeding grounds off coastal California and gray whales migrating north to Alaska, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced it will close the commercial and recreational Dungeness crab fisheries in southern and central fishing zones including Monterey Bay to reduce the risk of entanglements.
Recently spotters with the department counted as many as 34 humpbacks in one day, said Ryan Bartling, a senior environmental scientists at the wildlife agency. The increased presence of whales observed by planes overhead and vessels on the water triggered the decision to close the fishing season on April 8.
“As it becomes summer, it is not uncommon to see dozens of groups of humpbacks foraging between Monterey Bay and the Gulf of the Farallones (near San Francisco),” he said.
With the closure, the wildlife department is also expected to examine new draft regulations for the fishery, which could set even stricter requirements for when crab fishermen can start fishing with lines and pots and when the season must end.
In former years, before a settlement that led to current regulations limiting the season when the giant mammals are spotted in larger numbers, Dungeness crab fishermen typically started in mid-November and pulled their traps in June. This season, they weren’t allowed to start until late January; fishermen have since pulled in 13 million pounds of crabs worth about $43.4 million.
Whales – and other animals of the sea – can get wrapped up in the lines that connect the pots catching crabs on the ocean floor to buoys on the water’s surface – in 2023, 27 whales were caught in fishing gear off the West Coast, five of which were wrapped up in California Dungeness crab gear, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration records.
April 8, 2024 — Fishing regulators are poised to potentially shut down California’s king salmon season for the second time in two years, and just the third time in history.
The Pacific Fisheries Management Council kicked-off its annual meeting in Seattle, Washington where it will determine the upcoming season which normally begins in May. But still feeling the impacts of the recent drought which has decimated the salmon population, the council is considering either closing the season entirely, or allowing extremely limited fishing.
“For the second year in a row we’re looking at very likely a full closure,” anticipated Jared Davis, owner of the Salty Lady charter fishing boat in Sausalito.
Although California has seen two consecutive winters of heavy rains, the issue with the adult salmon has tentacles in the drought. Salmon are on a three-year life cycle and this year’s crop of adult fish were spawned in the grips of the drought. The complete closure of last year’s season was only the second full closure in history and hit the fishing industry hard.
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.”
April 3, 2024 — Blake Herman harpoons swordfish off the coast of southern California and hopes to gain access to the state’s Marine Protected Areas off Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara Islands. When the California Fish & Game Department offered stakeholders the opportunity to petition for regulatory changes, Herman submitted a petition to open three MPAs for pelagic fishing.
“If you read the original statements from back in the early 2000s when these MPAs were established, it says very clearly that the MPAs are intended to protect groundfish, and rockfish,” said Herman. “They said back then that these would not affect pelagics.”
While Herman believes the rationale for protecting rockfish is sound, he hopes his 36-page petition will convince state regulators that it is equally sensible to allow fishing for pelagic species such as swordfish and bluefin tuna. “A rockfish lives on the bottom and can spend its life in a small area, but swordfish come from Hawaii to here and go back again,” he said.