Fishing in the Central Valley: Do we want to allow salmon to become extinct?
The question for the past year on most northern California anglers’ lips has been: Will there be a salmon season in 2025?
That question has changed to: Why bother having a salmon season?
That question is based upon the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s annual salmon information meeting and the three proposed alternatives listed by the Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC).
A third consecutive year of an ocean and river salmon closure will further devastate the economies of northern California’s coastal communities, the proposed alternatives are based on a 4,000-fish commercial quota and a 12-day ocean recreational season at best.
The ocean abundance forecast for Sacramento River fall-run salmon was 165,655, far less than the 213,000 predicted. An alternative for commercial anglers is a total of 4,000 fish, and in the past, individual boats have landed up to 4,000 fish. The proposed quota could be attained within a few hours or a few days, ending the remainder of the season. The most liberal recreational alternative is three four-day seasons on June 5-8, July 3-6, and July 31-Aug. 3 with the potential for an additional season from Aug. 28-Oct. 15 in the event the quota has not been attained. We all love to fish for salmon, but unless major changes are implemented, the future of California’s salmon is under severe threat.
I can only imagine how difficult it is for those who have poured their lives into commercial fishing, only to see the rug pulled out from under them with the inability to fish for salmon for three years. Boats are rotting in the harbors with maintenance put on hold, two years without steady income, party boat captains leaving their home ports to target other species inside of San Francisco Bay, additional fishing pressure is transferred to other species, coastal communities suffer from a lack of visitors for recreational salmon fishing, and commercial and recreational party boat captains are being forced to abandon their way of life.
Growing up in Stockton, I heard the stories of pain from my grandfather, Frank Busalacchi, and his brothers about the commercial salmon fishing closure in the Delta in 1958. After emigrating from Sicily in the 1870s, my great-grandfather, Guiseppe Busalacchi, commercially fished in San Francisco Bay before migrating east through the Delta to Stockton by 1917. The family had two commercial launches – the 45-foot Solano and the 50-foot Rio Vista and operated a successful salmon tender business along with P. Busalacchi and Bros. Fish Market on Channel Street, Stockton.
My grandfather shared stories of the big boats being so loaded with salmon on their way to the canneries in Pittsburg that they only had a few feet of freeboard. I’ve heard similar stories from the late Captain Roger. Thomas of pitchforking salmon in the San Joaquin River near Fresno. After the commercial closure, the family lost their vessels, and within six years, the previously thriving fish market closed. My grandfather told me toward the end of his life that he had “seen the best of it.” These words have resonated with me for decades, and it has become increasingly clear what they meant.
We will never recover what has been lost over the past century, but three years of closure is getting very close to the tipping point of no return. Salmon have inhabited the Earth for millions of years, but with the Sacramento River winter-run salmon endangered, and the spring run salmon threatened and the San Joaquin River run devastated decades ago, the Sacramento fall-run salmon are the only viable run to support and sustain a commercial and recreational fishery.
“The only way to improve the returns are to get the salmon fry and smolts safely to the ocean,” Mike Aughney is vice-chair of the Golden State Salmon Association said.
He recommends 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.
“We don’t see consistent flow regimes like we did in the 80s and 90s with around 4.5 million acre-feet as the diversions have increased to around 6.5 million acre-feet starting in the early 2000s. 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.”
Amid the current salmon crisis, on Jan. 31 Gov. Gavin Newsom directed the Department of Water Resources to maximize water diversions statewide, increasing the 2025 State Water Project allocation from 20% to 35% of requested supplies.
Fish need water to survive, and there are 23,000 jobs in California in the salmon industry depending upon fish to survive. In California, a healthy and functional salmon industry is valued at $1.4 billion in economic activity.
The proposed alternatives are not final as there are additional steps in the process including PMFC’s public hearing 7-9 p.m. March 24.
More information is available www.pcouncil.org.
The PMFC will adopt final regulatory measures for analysis during their April 9-15 meeting in San Jose, and final adoption of recommendations to the National Marine Fisheries Service will also occur and is tentatively scheduled for April 15.
The California Fish and Game Commission is scheduled to meet April 16-17 to receive an update on ocean salmon sport fishery regulations in effect for 2025.
The only possible reason to open the salmon season would be the optics of a third year of closure. Such minimal margins do not provide justification for opening either the commercial or recreational season.
The question for us is: Are we the generation that allowed salmon to become extinct?
Dave Hurley is a longtime educator, fishing writer and member of the California Outdoors Hall of Fame.
This story was originally published March 21, 2025 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Fishing in the Central Valley: Do we want to allow salmon to become extinct?."