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During the drought of 2020 to 2022, amid immense competition for water, the population of Chinook salmon (or king salmon), which are the mainstay of California\u2019s commercial fishery, slipped to near-record lows. The three-year closure of the commercial season that ensued was the longest-ever shutdown, topping the two-year closure in 2008 and 2009.<\/p>\n
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In the winter of 2022-23, California\u2019s weather turned extraordinarily wet, erasing the drought and prompting a bumper crop of young Chinook salmon that this year represent the bulk of the fish returning to spawn. Federal fishery managers project 392,349 fall-run Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River and 176,233 fall-run Chinook in the Klamath River \u2014 a fraction of the historical numbers but a significant increase over prior years.<\/p>\n
Chris Lawson, a longtime fisherman who keeps a boat in Bodega Bay, is looking forward to heading out for the salmon season next month, though he\u2019s keeping his expectations in check.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to give it a shot,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll fish and see what it looks like and then figure it out after that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lawson remains concerned that the fishing restrictions this year, alongside high fuel prices amid the war in Iran, will make it hard to turn a profit, something that\u2019s particularly important after three years without the cash flow from salmon season.<\/p>\n
Like others in California, Lawson has tried to weather the economic toll by heading elsewhere to catch salmon, such as Oregon, as well as falling back on crab and other fish. He\u2019s also spent more time managing his family\u2019s cattle ranch in Dillon Beach.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe\u2019re happy to get a season this year, but it\u2019s kind of a shadow of its former self,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Under the rules set by the Pacific Fishery Management Council, commercial fishermen will have a string of three- to seven-day windows between May and September to catch fish in specified areas between Monterey Bay and Mendocino County.<\/p>\n
Boats will be limited to 160 salmon in each of the windows through August, with the cumulative catch over the period restricted to 83,000 fish. In September, boats will be restricted to 100 fish per outing, with the cumulative catch capped at 20,000 fish.<\/p>\n
Federal fishery managers also approved a recreational salmon season this year, with limitations; that season has already begun. Like commercial fishing, sport fishing was banned over the past three years, with the exception of six days in 2025.<\/p>\n
The regulations adopted last weekend by the Pacific Fishery Management Council are not technically on the books until the National Marine Fisheries Service signs off, which is expected any day.<\/p>\n
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![\"Boats]()
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Boats sit in their slips at Spud Point Marina in Bodega Bay on Friday. Many of the vessels will be piloted to sea when the salmon season opens next month.<\/p>\n
Jessica Christian\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Vance Staplin, executive director of the industry\u2019s Golden State Salmon Association, said the council\u2019s vessel-based trip quotas and harvest limits are a first for California\u2019s commercial fishermen, in terms of regulation, and will be tough to navigate financially.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone\u2019s doing a big dance that we\u2019re fishing, and that\u2019s cool,\u201d he said. \u201cBut these commercial guys are going to be struggling, the bigger boats especially because of the overhead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Going forward, Staplin worries that warm, dry weather this year, on top of recent commitments by the Trump and Newsom administrations to supply more water to people and agriculture, will bring back problems for salmon. He blames aggressive water policies, more than anything, for their decline.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever we go into a year where we don\u2019t have much water, these fisheries are taking a hit,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat\u2019s going on is we\u2019re nowhere near where we need to be to get a healthy (salmon) fishery.\u201d<\/p>\n
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While Gov. Gavin Newsom has sought to increase pumping from rivers and creeks, his administration has also launched river restoration projects for salmon and continued hatchery programs to boost fish numbers, all of which the governor credited for helping revive salmon fishing this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing progress because of the work we\u2019re doing together,\u201d Newsom said in a statement. \u201cSalmon aren\u2019t just an important part of our ecosystem; they\u2019re part of who we are as Californians.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lindgren, at A16, is already thinking about how her restaurant will prepare the local fish, once they get it: as a crudo, for bruschetta, in Acqua Pazza and as an entr\u00e9e braised with pine nuts and olives. Even the bones, she says, will be used for broth.<\/p>\n
Lindgren describes California salmon as a brighter orange than other salmon and generally much leaner.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really a joy to offer,\u201d she said. \u201cWe love having the seafood coming from right out our back door\u2026 super exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fisherman Chris Lawson, on his boat Seaward at Spud Point Marina in Bodega Bay on Friday, is looking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,643,413,1727,412],"class_list":{"0":"post-274208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-food","13":"tag-outdoors","14":"tag-restaurants"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}