Dead salmon litter the bank at the mouth of Chico Creek in Bremerton on Monday, Oct. 28, 2024.
San Jose, California – California’s salmon fishery is facing an unprecedented third consecutive year of closure, as state and federal officials grapple with the ongoing collapse of the Chinook salmon population — a keystone species long tied to California’s environmental health, Indigenous cultures, and fishing economy.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council voted this week to shut down the 2025 commercial salmon fishing season and to allow only limited recreational fishing days. The closures come amid dire projections for fall-run Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River, historically the backbone of California’s salmon harvest.
“This closed commercial and token recreational fishing season is a human tragedy, as well as an economic and environmental disaster,” said Scott Artis, executive director of the Golden State Salmon Association.
Decades of ecological damage — from gold mining and dam construction to agricultural water diversions — have devastated the rivers where salmon spawn and grow. Altered waterways, levees, and reduced flows have raised river temperatures, spelling death for many juvenile fish and eggs. The effects were worsened by years of drought and controversial water management policies under former President Donald Trump, who ordered more water be diverted to agriculture over fish survival in 2020.
In 2024, fewer than 100,000 Chinook returned to the Sacramento River and its tributaries — a steep decline from historical figures. Fewer than 30,000 returned to the Klamath River, where Indigenous tribes depend on the fish both culturally and nutritionally.
Commercial fleets, once the lifeblood of coastal fishing towns, have been gutted. Fewer than 900 salmon permits were issued this year, compared to 1,200 in 2010. Charter operators, like Jared Davis of Sausalito’s Salty Lady, have turned to ash scatterings and party tours to survive. “It might give California anglers a glimmer of hope and keep them from selling all their rods and buying golf clubs,” Davis said, referring to the brief June sportfishing window that could exhaust the 7,000-fish recreational quota in a single weekend.
Sarah Bates, a commercial fisher at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf, says the economic pain is far-reaching. “It continues to be devastating. Salmon has been the cornerstone of many of our ports for a long time,” she said. “And the trickle-down impacts — from fuel services to grocery stores — are growing.”
State leaders have acknowledged the urgency. Earlier this year, Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration released a 37-page recovery blueprint titled California Salmon Strategy for a Hotter, Drier Future. While praised for addressing habitat restoration and climate challenges, critics say it fails to confront harmful new water projects, such as the Delta tunnel and Sites Reservoir.
Experts like Jacob Katz of California Trout and Rene Henery of Trout Unlimited argue that only bold action — restoring wetlands, revising water use, and rebuilding floodplains — can reverse the collapse. Henery’s proposed “Reorienting to Recovery” plan aims to bring Central Valley Chinook populations back to over 1.6 million adult fish per year in two decades.
“We’re balanced on the edge of losing these populations,” Katz warned. “We have to go big now. We have no other option.”
