California Salmon Season To Be Fully Restored for 2011

California Salmon Season To Be Fully Restored for 2011

Commercial and recreational fishermen in California are getting ready for the first full salmon fishing season in four years. The California Fish and Game Commission has announced a six month inland salmon season to begin on July 16th and federal fishery regulators are expected to announce the opening of a full commercial season for ocean salmon soon.

After a sudden population collapse in 2007, salmon runs reached drastically low levels in 2008 and 2009, causing a complete shutdown of salmon fisheries in California. While blame has been levied upon several different stressors, the National Marine Fisheries Service has attributed the majority of the decline to poor oceanic feeding conditions.

Those oceanic conditions have dramatically improved over the past two years, with cold water flows carrying much needed nutrients, and salmon runs are beginning to reap the benefits. Every major hatchery on the Sacramento River has seen populations of fall-run salmon double from 2009 numbers. Meanwhile, the Stanislaus River has seen dramatic increases in salmon populations this year. And, the California Department of Fish and Game has reported record fall -run Chinook salmon on the Eel River. Other hatcheries throughout the state have reported improvements in fall salmon runs, which bodes well for other salmon runs that migrate during other parts of the year.

The commercial salmon season did open in 2010, for the first time since 2007, but only lasted a span of eight days. That was not nearly long enough to support the once flourishing salmon fishing industry in California.

Continued efforts to address the Bay-Delta food web, predation by non-native species and other stressors on the Delta ecosystem are still necessary to continue to maintain California's salmon runs.