For Immediate Release: February 26, 2025
Contacts: Scott Artis, Golden State Salmon Association, 925-550-9208, scott@goldenstatesalmon.org
California’s Water Policies Pulverize Ocean Salmon Population – Fisheries Agencies Say Brutally Low Forecast Will Constrain 2025 Fishing
AMERICAN CANYON, Calif. – Today the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) hosted its annual 2025 Salmon Information Meeting where fisheries agencies announced an incredibly low ocean abundance forecast of a mere 165,655 Sacramento River Fall-Run Chinook Salmon.
This ocean abundance forecast, known as the Sacramento Index, provides science-based advice to the Pacific Fishery Management Council during its annual salmon fishing season setting process that will take place over the next couple months. Sacramento River Fall-Run Chinook, historically the largest contributor to ocean salmon harvest off California and Oregon, have experienced dramatic declines over the last 5 years – resulting in closed salmon fishing seasons in 2023 and 2024, tens of thousands of commercial and recreational fishermen out of work, and fishing businesses facing closures.
“Enough is enough,” said Scott Artis, executive director of Golden State Salmon Association. “We are ignoring the dying canary in the coalmine that is suffocating from California’s bad water policies. The Newsom administration is starving our rivers, fish, wildlife, and every fisherman, family, and business that relies on the Bay-Delta watershed for their survival.”
The 2025 forecast released today is much lower than the 213,622 fall-run salmon ocean abundance predicted last year. In response to the miserable ocean abundance forecast, agencies said in their presentation that this data “will constrain 2025 fisheries” and fisheries managers must “proceed with caution” in “another tough year” when determining the upcoming California salmon fishing season. Both CDFW and NOAA noted poor out-migrating river conditions for baby salmon – specifically the Sacramento River having experienced low water flows and high temperatures in recent years.
In February, the Pacific Fishery Management Council also released its review of the 2024 salmon fisheries and reported a preliminary estimate of 99,274 adult fall-run Chinook that returned to the Sacramento River Basin last year. Overall, these very poor results were primarily caused by the low water and excessive industrial ag diversions that occurred in the spring of 2022 when the baby salmon were trying to transit the river to the ocean. While many fertilized eggs failed to hatch because of high water temperatures created by dam operations, the few young salmon that year mostly failed to survive out-migration in the deadly low, warm river conditions. The bad water conditions were greatly exacerbated by federal water policies, which were embraced by Governor Gavin Newsom, that favored agricultural water deliveries over all else.
“This is not a fishing problem. The salmon fishery has been closed for two years and that means all fingers are pointing at poor water management. The Governor has the power to protect California’s salmon and fishing communities, but time and again, he’s sacrificed salmon families to cater to the state’s big ag water interests,” said Artis.
The abysmal fall-run salmon numbers come on the heels of Golden State Salmon Association’s announcement yesterday that hatchery salmon survival can be dramatically increased up to 15 times by engaging a short-haul trucking release strategy. The new strategy, championed by the organization, trucks salmon from the Coleman National Fish Hatchery approximately 107 miles downstream to a release site in the Sacramento River. Recently collected US Fish and Wildlife Service data indicated trucked salmon survive and return to spawn at 3 to 15 times higher rates than hatchery fish released directly at the hatchery, which is the standard practice.
“There’s no more time to lose. Salmon and the fishing industry don’t have the luxury to sit back and watch state and federal politicians promote the same old failed water policies year after year,” continued Artis. “In low water or drought years, trucking baby hatchery salmon downstream will give them a chance at survival – driving them around treacherous stretches of the upper Sacramento River where many are lost to predators, low flows, and high water temperatures. The dismal salmon numbers are telling us it’s time to implement new hatchery trucking procedures today.”
Golden State Salmon Association (www.goldenstatesalmon.org) is a coalition of salmon advocates that includes commercial and recreational salmon fishermen and women, businesses, restaurants, a native tribe, environmentalists, elected officials, families and communities that rely on salmon. GSSA’s mission is to restore California salmon for their economic, recreational, commercial, environmental, cultural and health values.
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