Saving Seafood

PFMC to host public meeting on salmon management alternatives

March 24, 2026 — Public comment is being sought by the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) on March 24 on three proposed total allowable catch (TAC) alternatives for Chinook and coho salmon during the upcoming Oregon salmon seasons.

Options under consideration for north of Cape Falcon include TACs of 120,000 Chinook and 130,000 coho, 112,500 Chinook and 120,000 coho, and 97,500 Chinook and 90,000 coho, respectively.

The hybrid public meeting is set for 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Gladys Valley Marine Studies Building in Newport.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

CALIFORNIA: Calif. salmon season reopens, but commercial fleet faces uncertainty

March 23, 2026 — For the first time in four years, California’s salmon fishery is set to reopen this spring– offering a long-awaited opportunity for commercial fishermen who have weathered consecutive closures tied to historically low stock levels.

The commercial season, shuttered since 2023, is expected to open in mid-May, with final dates and regulations to be determined in April by the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC). While the reopening signals a rebound in salmon abundance, many in the commercial fleet say the path forward is far from certain.

According to the Calif. Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), salmon populations have more than doubled compared to last year, enough to support both recreational and commercial fisheries in 2026. “Salmon stocks have recovered to the point that sport and commercial ocean fisheries can be offered this year,” said CDFW’s Marci Yaremko to Lookout Santa Cruz.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Fewer fish in West Coast waters will be federally regulated

March 18, 2026 — The West Coast’s most important fisheries manager has voted to remove 47 stocks of groundfish from active federal management. Amid massive cuts to federal budgets for science and regulatory activities, members of the Pacific Fishery Management Council were told their 50-year-old system is unsustainable.

The National Marine Fisheries Service instructed the nation’s regional fishery councils to use a specific process — a matrix examining risk versus value — to evaluate the more than 500 stocks they manage and to narrow the scope of their responsibilities. That work started with Pacific groundfish.

Merrick Burden is the executive director of the Pacific council, which oversees West Coast and Idaho fisheries. He said cuts from the Trump administration have slashed the staff of the federal regulators and scientists they work with.

“In our region, the estimates are around 40% of their staff, which is staggering,” he said. “So this has led to a national conversation of: how many species can we really manage? And we need to prioritize more.”   

Read the full article at KNKX

Upwelling Fueled Productive West Coast Ocean, Holding Warm Waters Offshore in 2025

March 10, 2026 — A massive marine heatwave warmed the eastern Pacific Ocean through much of 2025, but the wind-driven upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich water that drives the rich marine productivity of the West Coast kept the ecosystem healthy.

That is the conclusion of the California Current Ecosystem Status Report, an annual assessment of the West Coast marine ecosystem by NOAA’s California Current Integrated Ecosystem Assessment team. The report provides ecological insight for the Pacific Fishery Management Council and others on the ecological, social, and economic factors likely to influence fisheries and other ocean uses in the coming year.

The report assesses conditions and trends over the last year for insight on coming seasons. The leading takeaways from the annual report include:

  • Strong upwelling fostered productive waters and held heatwave warmth offshore
  • Deep-water nutrients likely fostered toxic algae as it mixed with warm surface water
  • Juvenile salmon, young rockfish and anchovy flourished in productive conditions
  • Shrimp-like krill, which often reflect the health of the ecosystem, proved abundant coastwide
  • Precipitation on land reduced drought conditions but sparse snowpack reduced water storage
  • Four coastal fish processors closed as total coastwide landings remain low

This year’s report also highlights new technology, ocean forecasts, and collaborations with vessel operators that provide fishing fleets and managers with timely ecosystem insight that helps support sustainable fisheries. It includes projections that many marine species will move farther offshore and into deeper waters as the ocean warms, which could affect fishing fleets and their communities on the West Coast.

Researchers from the NOAA Fisheries Northwest and Southwest Fisheries Science Centers presented the findings to the Council this week. They said abundant forage such as krill, juvenile rockfish, and anchovy helped boost species including salmon, squid, seabirds, and more.

“Warming continues to be an inescapable reality off the West Coast, but upwelling saved the day,” said Andrew Leising, a research oceanographer at the NOAA Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center and an editor of the annual ecosystem reports. “The cold water influx helped hold off the marine heatwave and sustained many of the fisheries and species the California Current is known for.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

OREGON: ODFW seeks nominee for Pacific Fisheries Management Council

December 31, 2025 — ODFW is accepting nominations for a seat on the Pacific Fishery Management Council. The three-year term for this Oregon at-large seat begins Aug. 11, 2026.

Anyone interested in being considered, or wishing to nominate someone, must contact Jessica Watson at 541-351-1196 or jessica.l.watson@odfw.oregon.gov. Completed application packets must be submitted no later than Jan. 23, 2026.

The Oregon at-large seat is currently held by Brad Pettinger, who is not eligible for re-appointment to another three-year term, since he has completed his full allotment of terms. ODFW will send all nominations to the Governor who will then forward the names of at least three candidates to the National Marine Fisheries Service (in the U.S. Department of Commerce) for consideration. Successful appointees must pass an extensive FBI background check.

Read the full article at the Lake County Examiner

Promising signs for 2026 after California closes commercial salmon season for the year

April 29, 2025 — For the third consecutive year, commercial salmon fishing off the California coast will be prohibited, although there will be a limited opportunity for recreational anglers for the first time since 2022. However, officials say data indicates the industry could see a return in 2026.

Angela Forristall, salmon staff officer with the Pacific Fishery Management Council, said the decision to recommend closing the state’s commercial salmon fisheries for the year followed a challenging debate among the council and stakeholders from both the recreational and commercial fishing industries.

Forristall shared that there were several versions of the recommendation that did open commercial fishing briefly, but the data they’re seeing from populations in the Klamath and Sacramento rivers says it’s potentially too soon for major operations.

Read the full story at KRCR

CALIFORNIA: ‘Hope dies hard’: Fishing industry reacts to CA salmon season closure

April 21, 2025 — This week, the Pacific Fishery Management Council adopted recommendations for ocean salmon fishing along the West Coast; for an unprecedented third year in a row, the council has recommended closing commercial fishing off the California coast and allowing only limited commercial fishing in Oregon and Washington.

Commercial fishermen and fishing organizations largely affirmed the need to suspend salmon fishing, but noted that three years without a season has been devastating to fishermen and coastal communities that rely on salmon fishing.

Commercial salmon fisherman and Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District Commissioner Aaron Newman said that he had been optimistic after seeing indications that “a lot of healthy jacks” were coming out of the Sacramento region as the Pacific Fishery Management Council planned its recommendation to the National Marine Fisheries Service. But said that analysis of recent trendlines, which take into account the very grim indicator of the past two years, might have scuttled the opportunity for a season.

“Nobody wants to fish on a failing fishery,” Newman said, “but it really looked like it was rebounding.”

Impact on fishermen

“Coastal towns, river communities and thousands of salmon fishery employees depend on the salmon season to generate income and stay afloat — and now, for the third year in a row, they’ve been dealt another devastating impact with an unprecedented closure of the 2025 salmon season,” read a statement issued by U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Raphael). “The last two years of closures have devastated California’s coastal economies — and facing a third consecutive closure marks an unprecedented low point.”

Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations Executive Director Lisa Damrosch lamented a lack of a safety net.

“We don’t have access to the same resources that other food producers have,” she said, noting that commercial fishermen don’t have access to programs like those provided by the USDA. “We have had disasters declared in the past; 2023 and 2024 were both declared disasters, but that’s a very long and onerous process. There still have been no pay-outs to the fishermen from 2023 … There are other programs for agriculture such as subsidies if there is a bad season or subsidies for low prices or low-interest loans or grants; we don’t have any of that to help our fishermen, food producers, when there’s a disaster or an issue.”

Read the full story at the Times-Standard

California salmon season shuts down for third year in a row

April 17, 2025 — California’s salmon fishery will be closed to commercial fishermen for an unprecedented third year in a row, under a vote Tuesday by fishery managers.

What happened: After an abysmal forecast for this season’s salmon numbers, the Pacific Fishery Management Council approved a proposal Tuesday that would bar commercial fishermen from harvesting salmon due to even lower populations than in 2023 and 2024.

Though the past two seasons have also seen a closure for recreational fishing, this year’s proposal allows a few dayslong windows for sport and recreational anglers under a statewide harvest quota based on a recommendation from NOAA Fisheries.

Read the full story at E&E News

Commercial salmon fishing in California will be closed for a third year in a row

April 16, 2025 — The 2025 commercial salmon fishing season in California will be closed for an unprecedented third year running, and sportfishing will be restricted to only a few days due to dwindling numbers of fish, fishing regulators voted Tuesday.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council, which manages West Coast fisheries, warned earlier this year there would be limited salmon fishing this year in California, if at all, because of a predicted low number of fall-run Chinook salmon, often known as king salmon, in the Sacramento River.

“This closed commercial and token recreational fishing season is a human tragedy, as well as an economic and environmental disaster,” Scott Artis, executive director of Golden State Salmon Association, said in a statement.

Salmon fishing is wildly popular in California but has been off limits for the past two years to commercial and recreational fishing due to dwindling stocks. People who commercially fish blame the issue on a years-earlier drought that walloped waterways, as well as state and federal water management policies they say have made it tough for the species to thrive.

Read the full article at The Associated Press

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