In April, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife canceled the state’s commercial salmon season for the third straight year. Experts say warming waters and reduced river flow are the main factors behind California’s plummeting salmon population. But one program, based in Richmond, is trying to counter the decline with a net pen and release program orchestrated by the Golden State Salmon Association (GSSA).
“Salmon represents California,” Cat Kaiser, Operations Director of the GSSA, told Richmondside. “It’s a natural resource, and it should be abundant.”
The GSSA has held annual summer releases in the Richmond Harbor since 2021. At this year’s June 16 release, Richmond youths working with the Richmond Police Activities League joined California Department of Fish and Wildlife employees on the Salty Lady, a charter fishing vessel, to watch the release — “dump” is perhaps a more appropriate term — of 200,000 juvenile salmon into Brickyard Cove, and to go fishing.
“They go home with enough salmon to fill their freezers, and they’re the heroes,” said Kaiser. “It gives less-resourced communities an opportunity to get outdoors and have a hobby besides sitting inside and playing video games.”
Kaiser hopes that such hands-on educational opportunities will help foster a culture of conservation among a younger generation. The salmon crisis is only going to get worse in the face of warming ocean temperatures —salmon thrive in temperatures below 57 F— and water-diversion projects that prioritize agriculture.
At the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, 60 miles east of the Golden Gate Bridge, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) taps the Delta to deliver water to southern California cities and San Joaquin farmland as part of the State Water Project.
The project, initiated in 1960, created 705-miles of water storage and delivery systems, providing fresh water to 27 million Californians and 750,000 acres of farmland, according to the DWR.
While the California Coastal Chinook Salmon was federally listed as threatened in 1999 — thereby requiring the DWR to “minimize, avoid and fully mitigate impacts” of water projects on the species — the GSSA points to the population’s declining numbers as evidence of the state’s flawed safeguarding efforts.
“The environment takes the back burner,” Kaiser said, referring to the project. “The salmon don’t even have a seat at the table.”
In the face of such challenges, some salmon advocates have taken population restoration into their own hands.
The juvenile salmon released in Richmond are raised by the Mokelumne Fish Hatchery northwest of Stockton, and are released here because of Richmond’s “proximity to the Golden Gate and open ocean,” according to the GSSA.
This year, the initial plan was to hold the salmon underwater in a large net pen to give them a week to acclimate to the local waters, and increase the chance they might return to there as adults. But, just a week before the scheduled acclimation phase, water temperature checks revealed it was too warm. Salmon eggs need cold water to hatch, and adults require it to spawn, migrate, and feed, according to the California State Water Resources Board.
So, Kaiser said, they opted for a direct release.
The operation is an exacting affair: salmon must be released at night to avoid the threat of bird predators, and an outgoing tide is needed to push the juveniles — who are just 4 to 6 inches long — out to sea to avoid them being eaten by striped bass and other sea creatures, Kaiser said.
The hatchery must also rotate releases two days on, five days off, so that predators don’t pick up on the trend.
Kaiser said the hope is that the salmon will return to the bay after two years in the ocean, creating a new fishing stock.
What’s the effect of the declining population of salmon?
A healthy California salmon season generates $1.4 billion and 23,000 jobs, according to the GSSA. But many of those in the salmon business are barely holding on, said Richmond-based sportfisher guide Bill Clapp.
Even the recreational fishing season, usually open for six months, was only open for two days this year, from June 7 to 8, with a state-wide 7,000-fish quota, according to the American Sportsfishing Association. The fall season will open from Sept. 4 to 7, with a 7,500-fish limit from Point Reyes to Point Sur.
The state implemented the quotas this season, Clapp said. In previous summers, individuals were simply restricted to a bag limit of two salmon a day, he said, but not restricted on a group basis.
A limited salmon season has a significant impact on charter vessels, tackle shops, and guides. San Francisco-based charter captain Ron Koyasako estimates the restrictions have cut his charter business by 60-70%. And the curtailed season has cost Clapp 40 to 60 trips this year, amounting to estimated lost revenues of $35,000 to $50,000, he said.
“That’s how much salmon means to the fishing industry,” he said.
“I still have boat insurance. I still have to pay for my license fees,” Clapp said. “And then you can’t fish? It’s ridiculous.”
While Clapp’s operation is relatively small, he said that the repeatedly canceled seasons have forced some larger commercial operations to sell their charter rigs, or change their process entirely.
“A couple of them are actually fishing halibut in the bay rod-and-reel style,” he said.
Efforts like the GSSA’s help, Clapp said, but without policy-level changes in state water management, he worries that the salmon decline will continue.
“You can’t rely just on hatcheries,” he said. “When [the state] keeps taking all this water and sending it down south, they run the lakes up here so low that the water’s not cold enough for the eggs.”
Andy Guiliano, owner of commercial salmon fishing operation Fish Emeryville, calculates the cancelled commercial season will lose him between a third to a half of his summer revenue.
California declared fishery disasters in 2023 and 2024 for certain fisheries, which allowed them to apply for small-business loans, an option few operations take, Guiliano said, as it pushes them deeper in debt.
And the funds can be slow to arrive. Fish Emeryville, which employs six people across two boats, only received federal relief funds for the 2023 season in early July of this year.
“All of it comes far too late,” Guiliano said. “And it’s generally less than 50% of the loss of revenue.”
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You can’t rely just on hatcheries. When [the state] keeps taking all this water and sending it down south, they run the lakes up here so low that the water’s not cold enough for the eggs.
— Richmond-based sportfisher guide Bill Clapp
Like Clapp, the GSSA has been highly critical of water-diversion policies, such as Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Jan. 31 Executive Order to direct all excess waterflow generated from winter storms to storage.
“It is more important than ever that we maximize every opportunity to recharge our groundwater supplies,” Newsom wrote in a statement. “We are also preparing to use every last drop to boost our water supply for communities and farms throughout the state.”
This water, GSSA argues, should remain in rivers, necessary for salmon migration.
“Water temperatures are too hot, and the flows are too low,” Kaiser said. “When there’s not enough water flowing, it turns into a cesspool.
Back in Richmond, the GSSA is still adjusting to a warming world — to try to ensure the water is at the lower temperature that salmon need, they plan to acclimate next year’s juvenile salmon in a net pen in April rather than June.
