SALMON SEASON IN 2025? – The author with a Marin coast salmon on the mooch in better days. Whether there will be a salmon season is $2 Billion dollar question that will be answered by April. The first clues will come out prior to the March Salmon Information meeting. Photo courtesy of Captain Trent Slate.
By Dave Hurley
WON Staff Writer
SACRAMENTO – The $2 Billion dollar question is, after two years of closure, will there be a Chinook salmon season this year? It’s at least a $2 Billion dollar question since a full season for Central Valley salmon provides over $2 billion in economic activity to communities in California and Oregon, providing 23,000 jobs in California and half that again in Oregon, according to the Golden State Salmon Association.
With no harvest in 2023 and 2024, this year should have been a record-breaker as there was nothing to stop the salmon from making it to the spawning grounds. In fact, a record of 34,000 fish returned to the Mokelumne River Hatchery, the largest count since record keeping began in 1940, but this all pales in comparison to the paltry returns to the upper Sacramento River. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported only 1100 females returned to the Coleman National Hatchery at Battle Creek in fall 2024, short of the 3500 pairs of Chinook salmon during the months of October and November to meet the annual production goal of 12 million juvenile fall Chinook salmon. This resulted in only 5.5 million eggs, necessitating a transfer of eight to 10 million fall Chinook salmon eggs from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife hatcheries on the Feather, American, and Mokelumne Rivers.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service attributed the poor returns to ‘drought conditions in the spring of 2022,’ but there is more to this story as warm water releases out of the Thermolito Afterbay released lethally hot in the fall, resulting in the destruction of any attempt at survival. The cold-water pool at Shasta was exhausted earlier in the year to serve needs for agricultural and domestic use downstream, resulting in an over 95% collapse of the fall-run in the upper Sacramento River. Mike Aughney, vice-chair of the Golden State Salmon Association, said, “Salmon have survived drought patterns for millennia, but they can’t survive hot lethal water over the spawning grounds.”
So where do we currently stand? Although the first clues will be revealed during the annual Salmon Information Meeting by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in early March, there is speculation ranging from no season to a limited season of one week per month to a harvest quota for both commercial and recreational fishing. Three options will be presented at the March meeting, and the Pacific Fisheries Marine Council will review the three options later in March before adoption mid-April.
A third season of salmon closure could prove to the final nail in the coffins of California’s commercial salmon fishermen who are still awaiting the release of the allocated $20.6 million 2023 Salmon Disaster Relief funds, not to mention 2024’s. The recreational salmon industry and coastal communities are also severely affected by salmon closures to the point of party boat operators and tackle shops holding on to life support.
A limited season throws a lifeline to commercial and recreational anglers, it may not be enough to sustain their businesses. Aughney added, “It may not make economic sense for commercial salmon trollers to gear up again for a limited harvest after two years of closure since equipment on vessels deteriorates from lack of use.” One thing is increasingly clear, without a different approach to how available water is allocated and/or hatchery production is increased and fish released, the Central Valley fall-run Chinook salmon, the staple of the West Coast fishery, is following the same path toward extinction as the endangered winter-run and the soon-to-be uplisted threatened spring-run.
