SACRAMENTO – The optimism for the 2025 salmon season to end two years of closure took a gut punch this week when the preliminary estimate of adult fall-run salmon was released. A total of 99,274 adult fall-run returned to the Sacramento River Basin, well below the 2024 conservation and management objective of 180,000 fish. Hatchery returns totaled 26,834 adults and 8,301 jacks, while 72,440 adults and 10,864 jacks returned to natural spawning areas.
Mike Aughney, vice-chair of the Golden State Salmon Association, said, “The returns are a complete disaster, particularly since there has been no fishing for the past two years. The only way to improve the returns are to get the salmon fry and smolts safely to the ocean, and it will take slowing down the water diversions during the peak period of outgoing fish. Cut the pumping back through June to allow the fish to make it past the pumps and then ramp up the pumps. The migration of outgoing fish peaks in April. We don’t see consistent flow regimes like we did in the 80’s and 90’s with around 4.5 million acre-feet as the diversions have increased to around 6.5 million acre-feet starting in the early 2000’s. We have exceeded the tipping point. I was optimistic for the probability of some type of season before the announcement of these returns, but I’ve scaled back on this optimism since then.”
The Salmon Information meeting is the first opportunity for public engagement culminating in mid-May. Salmon Information Meeting details, informational materials and instructions for attendance will be published in advance of the event on CDFW’s Ocean Salmon webpage.
The process for determination of the salmon season can be accessed through this website:
Salmon Information Meeting Agenda – Wednesday, Feb 26, 2025, 10:00 am ~
10:00 am – Kandice Morgenstern, CDFW Welcome – Opening Comments and Review Agenda 10:10 am – Colby Hause, CDFW -2024 Central Valley Chinook Spawning Escapement
10:30 am – Morgan Knechtle, CDFW -2 024 Klamath Basin Chinook Spawning Escapement, Harvest, and Age Composition
10:30 am – 15-minute break
10:50 am – Anthony Siniscal, NMFS – NMFS 2025 Ocean Salmon Fishery Guidance
11:05 am – Dr. Michael O’Farrell, NMFS – Abundance Forecasts and Harvest Model Results 11:30 am – Kandice Morgenstern, CDFW – Closing Comments
12:00 noon – Meeting ends
