Another closure of salmon fisheries exposes state's water politics

Those in the seafood industry say big agriculture is not limited in their water use, but fisheries get hit with constraints.
photo credit: Ruth Dusseault/Bay City News
From left to right, Bodega Bay fisherman Dick Ogg; charter boat operator Andy Guiliano; Golden State Salmon Association
executive director Scott Artis; seafood distributor Joe Conte; and salmon boat captain Sarah Bates at San Francisco's
Fisherman's Wharf on April 11, 2024.

For the second year in a row, there will be no commercial or recreational salmon fishing in California.

And for the second year in a row, the governor's office has requested federal disaster relief to support impacted fishing communities, like Bodega Bay.

"That's just money," said salmon boat captain Sarah Bates at a public address in San Francisco on Thursday by the Golden State Salmon Association advocacy group. "What we really want is to fix the larger problem. What we're asking for is actually something much, much greater."

Bodega Bay fisherman Dick Ogg spoke specifically about how the closure will impact Sonoma County fishermen and women in Bodega Bay.

"[Bodega Bay] is a fishing community,,,it's a very small fishing village more or less, and originally the area there was set up for commercial fisheries," Ogg said. "We've had a reduction in our crab season. We've had a reduction in restriction in our rock fish season. And now we're going to go nine months without potential income."

On Wednesday, the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which determines fishery management measures in federal waters off the U.S. West Coast, recommended that fisheries not catch salmon through the end of the year.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife said it expects the National Marine Fisheries Service will also enact a closure, effective mid-May.

The California Fish and Game Commission will also consider whether to adopt a closure of inland salmon fisheries at its May 15 meeting.

The Golden State Salmon Association supports the recommendation of the PFMC, which works closely with federally recognized West Coast tribes, many who define themselves as "salmon people" and hold annual ceremonies to honor their return each year.

Bates said $20.6 million has been allocated from the U.S. Department of Commerce to compensate for some of the losses caused by last year's closure to charter fleets and commercial fleets, buyers and processors. But the fisheries are calling on the state to allocate water, not cash.

Scott Artis, executive director of the Golden State Salmon Association, said big agriculture is not limited in their water use, but fisheries get hit with constraints.

"What we're asking for is a small piece of the water pie," Artis said. "We just need a little bit of water to be able to keep salmon alive. The almond acreage has skyrocketed. In 1995 and 1996, the almond acreage in California was 500,000, and we're talking 1.6 million now in arid regions that are continuing to get that water pumped out to them."

He said, "That water comes from somewhere. And that's the rivers that sustain salmon and our other fish. We just want a small piece of that to keep the salmon industry alive, to keep the salmon population alive for all that other wildlife and systems that rely on them."

In a near-simultaneous announcement Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom's office requested a Federal Fishery Disaster Declaration.

"Years of extreme droughts, severe wildfires, and associated impacts to spawning and rearing habitat, harmful algal blooms, and ocean forage shifts have combined to result in low stock abundance forecasts over the past couple of years for Sacramento River Fall Chinook and Klamath River Fall Chinook," the governor's statement said.

The governor's statement said the state has spent $800 million in the past few years to protect and restore salmon populations, in addition to last year's federal relief. The administration also pointed to the governor's new recovery plan, California's Salmon Strategy for a Hotter, Drier Future.

Bates said that every single one of the governor's 71 action items are prefaced with the same qualifier, "state agencies and partners will do the following, depending upon available resources."

"But that's what we need," Bates said. "We need the funding for that plan, and we need the cooperation of all those agencies. If that salmon plan actually gets completed, if they do all those items, we would be in a completely different scenario right now."

Bates said the fisheries had no voice in the 2022 California State Water Resources Control Board's voluntary agreement arrangement with farmers and local water agencies that is used to determine water flows in the Sacramento-Delta tributaries. She says the water board has been kept from establishing temperature and flow regulations in the Sacramento River.

Artis said the fisheries have not been invited to the table to discuss the state's water policies.

"They've ignored our request to do so," Artis said. "They've ignored the request of our tribal partners, environmental justice community, and the conservation community."

If they did have a seat at the table, he said, they would have a specific agenda.

"We want to make sure that there's flow and temperature protections in our rivers, because lethal hot water is destroying salmon eggs. We also need to make sure that the voluntary agreement process, it's been stalled for years, is not just the road we want to go down. The governor needs to unleash the Water Resources Control Board to allow them to do their job to help protect the fish. We also need to jettison any idea of the Delta tunnel or the state's reservoir project that is going to continue to draw a vast amount of water out of the river."

When asked if the situation could be fixed by more equal distribution of water resources between farmers and fishers, seafood distributor Joe Conte said:

"I don't think it's striking a balance between the two," Conte said. "I think it's realizing what the priority is. And I would say that salmon, a wild organism that has lived in this state for millennia is a priority over almonds being grown in a desert that are being exported."

When asked to compare the relationship between fisheries and the governor's office with the water issues of agriculture, Artis responded frankly.

"Money talks and it's walking the halls of the Capitol every day," he said.