Plummeting salmon populations in California waters

California Chinook salmon populations have fallen to their lowest levels in years, according to new estimates released by state and federal scientists — a decline that could trigger a shutdown of the commercial and recreational fishing season along the coast.

“The salmon are struggling,” said Chuck Bonham, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “And we have great concern about their future, knowing we are fully committed to rebuilding them and saving them.”

Bonham said the decline is part of a decades-long trend, and the past three years of record drought “only further stressed our salmon populations.”

The department said scientists estimated that the number of 3-year-old fall-run Chinook likely to return to the Sacramento River this year to spawn would be fewer than 170,000, one of the lowest forecasts in 15 years. They also estimated that fewer than 104,000 are likely to return to the Klamath River, the second-lowest estimate since 1997.

In its announcement Wednesday, the department said returning fall-run Chinook “fell well short of conservation objectives” in the Sacramento River last year, and may now be approaching a point of being declared overfished.

“In response, federal and state agencies are expected to take a conservative approach when approving 2023 salmon seasons to provide additional protective measures to these stocks, and very limited or no fishing in 2023 appears possible,” the department said.

The new population estimates appear to reflect the variety of threats weighing on Chinook salmon. While the construction of numerous dams on ancestral rivers decades ago dealt a serious blow to the species’ survival, global warming and drought have also exacted a toll — even as state and federal hatcheries rear and release millions of salmon each year.

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