Fishing Groups Call for Closure of 2023 Salmon Season

Adult fall-run Chinook salmon congregate near the Nimbus Hatchery Fish Ladder on the American River, Carl Costas, DWR, 2012.

The drought has been bad for California’s fisheries. So have the state’s dams and dam operations. Returns of Chinook salmon from the oceans last year have been bad enough that the two major commercial ocean fishing organizations and the major fishing guides association for recreational anglers have recommended that the 2023 ocean salmon fishery be closed to most fishing.

Operational discretion by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has played a significant role in the loss of the inland nurseries of these oceangoing fish. Reclamation until last year prioritized water deliveries to large agricultural contractors whose contracts do not impose sufficient shortages during droughts.

Fortunately, last year Reclamation changed the game some when it negotiated with Sacramento Valley agricultural contractors and imposed major shortages because of last year’s dire conditions for salmon. But the effect of these actions could not affect last year’s ocean returns for Chinook salmon, cold-water fish with a three-year life cycle. The drought and Reclamation’s excessive water deliveries in 2019 largely sealed that cohort’s fate.

A major ocean fishery closure would help to protect the diminished fishery stocks from the 2020 through 2023 salmon cohorts. State and federal ocean fishery managers are expected to largely follow this recommendation.

However, whether Reclamation has the will and ability to ensure that its future deliveries can respond to adverse river conditions is something that has yet to be tested.

See press release requesting closure of the 2023 salmon ocean fishery