For Immediate Release: February 20, 2025
Contacts: Scott Artis, Golden State Salmon Association, 925-550-9208, scott@goldenstatesalmon.org
‘It’s Grim’ – California’s 2024 Fall Chinook Salmon Returns Only 55% of Fishery Management Objective
American Canyon, Calif. — The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) 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, which is well below the 2024 conservation and management objective of 180,000 fish. The PFMC will formally review this report at its March 2025 meeting prior to the development of management alternatives for the approaching fishing season.
“These salmon numbers are yet another reminder of the incredibly negative impacts of Governor Newsom’s water policies on salmon families,” said Scott Artis, executive director of Golden State Salmon Association. “Simply put, it’s grim for people, jobs, fish, and our rivers. The Governor has made it clear that salmon in our oceans, salmon in our rivers, and local salmon on the back decks of boats and restaurants that feed families and support tens of thousands of jobs is acceptable collateral damage for the continued diversions of enormous quantities of water required by unsustainable industrial agricultural operations.”
Scott Artis, executive director of Golden State Salmon Association
Background
In both 2023 and 2024, the PFMC and California Fish and Game Commission voted to close the salmon fishing season–a drastic step that affected all of California’s marine and fresh waters as well as included impacts to ocean salmon fishing off the Oregon coast. These closures mark the third and fourth times in history salmon fishing had been closed in California.
Over the last week, the Governor sent a letter to the State Water Resources Control Board urging changes to water rights permits to support the Delta Conveyance Project, known as the Delta Tunnel. It was also announced that a required Incidental Take Permit was granted to advance the project. The Governor’s plan is to divert large amounts of fresh water from the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary to industrial agriculture and major cities south of the Delta, including areas outside the Bay-Delta watershed. The Bay-Delta’s health, along with its salmon and the commercial and recreational fishing industries, depend on cold water flowing into the Bay.
“Now I know what the Governor means when he says they are ‘preparing to use every last drop’ of water – that salmon and everyone who relies on the salmon fishery for their livelihoods and their culture are going to get the shaft,” said Artis. “There was no salmon fishing last year to have any impact on spawning adults. The low return numbers don’t lie. Fisheries and hatchery managers did their jobs to get salmon back to the rivers to spawn but our water was managed so poorly that baby fish couldn’t make it to the Golden Gate Bridge. This is the result of the Governor’s failed water policies.”
Scott Artis, executive director of Golden State Salmon Association
In California, a healthy and functional salmon industry is valued at $1.4 billion in economic activity and 23,000 jobs annually and contributes approximately $700 million to the economy and supports more than 10,000 jobs in Oregon. Industry workers benefiting from Central Valley salmon stretch from Santa Barbara to northern Oregon. This includes commercial fishermen and women, recreational fishermen and women (fresh and salt water), fish processors, marinas, coastal communities, equipment manufacturers, the hotel and food industry, tribes, and others.
“We will know that the Governor is actually serious about helping salmon and fishing families when he finally abandons his extreme water diversions and salmon-killing projects. At this point, how can anyone trust him to manage flows, the Delta Tunnel and Sites Reservoir projects, or bypass environmental protections?” added Artis.
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.