FILE - Sarah Bates hauls in a chinook salmon on the fishing boat Bounty near Bolinas, Calif., Wednesday, July 17, 2019. Federal fishery managers voted Wednesday, April 10, 2024, to cancel all commercial and recreational salmon fishing off the coast of California for the second year in a row, and only the fourth time in state history, because of dwindling stocks. FILE - Fishing boats are pictured at Pier 45 in San Francisco, March 20, 2023.
A February report by the fishery council found that in 2023 just over 6,100 fall-run Chinook, often known as king salmon, returned to the upper Sacramento River to spawn. The average between 1996 and 2005 was more than 175,000 fish. Scott Artis, executive director of Golden State Salmon Association, said state water policy under Gov. Gavin Newsom has resulted in “dangerously low river flows, unsustainable water diversions out of our rivers, record high water temperatures because of dam operations and record numbers of salmon eggs and juveniles killed in our streams.”