On summer days in Half Moon Bay’s Pillar Point Harbor, people usually line up to buy king salmon direct from the source. But with the California salmon fishing season closed for the first time since 2009, the only kind for sale on Thursday was frozen, from Alaska.
“Once you eat the wild salmon, you stop buying them from the supermarket because the taste is totally different,” said customer Valeria Fedotova of Pacifica, who is a regular during the salmon season but comes only occasionally now that nothing local is available.
The salmon season that usually runs from May to October was closed because of a cascade of issues starting with the drought, which impacted this year’s fish when they were babies three years ago. The closure also follows several limited seasons for Dungeness crab fishing, another mainstay that historically took place from November to June, which could potentially be shortened again in the upcoming months.
California’s $200 million commercial fishing industry could become the state’s first big casualty of climate change, along with related businesses like charter boat companies and fish processors. Drought is a constant strain on salmon populations, and the crab fishing fleet has been hit hard as ocean warming has caused whales to swim closer to shore, putting the marine mammals at risk of entanglement with fishing gear. That has resulted in the crab season opening late four years in a row, depriving fishermen of the lucrative holiday market.
“With fisheries across the board it’s harder and harder to hold on,” said Dan Snell, a second-generation salmon troller at Pillar Point whose income is down 90%. “I would say we’re in unprecedented times.”
Fisherman Dan Snell helps tidy up his friend Rick Hauschel’s boat ahead of a prawn trip at Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay. Snell said his business is down by as much as 90% following the closure of the salmon season this summer.
Jessica Christian/The ChronicleLocal fishermen have been foretelling the end of their profession for years, but some of their predictions are starting to look like reality. Even though many seafood stocks in California are plentiful — such as Dungeness crab and others with less of a market draw — regulations and changing environmental patterns have already resulted in a demise of local catch in stores and restaurants.
“I’m selling farm-raised king salmon for the first time in my life,” said Shane Lucas, co-owner of Fishetarian Fish Market, a restaurant and market at a fishing dock in Bodega Bay. The business is doing well, he said, though the lack of local salmon has resulted in $50,000 to $60,000 in lost revenue.
Rick Powers, a charter boat captain in Bodega Bay and president of Golden Gate Fisherman’s Association, which represents businesses like his, said it’s the slowest year since he started fishing in 1969.
“I really can’t remember a year when we’ve faced so many obstacles and restrictions,” said Powers, whose Bodega Bay restaurant, the Boat House, is also suffering.
Fishery managers closed the season because of low projected numbers of adult king, or chinook, salmon in the Pacific Ocean. (Fishermen say the model used for projections is outdated.) In a press release, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife attributed the low numbers to “prolonged drought, severe wildfires and associated impacts to spawning and rearing habitat, harmful algal blooms and ocean forage shifts.”
After the closure was announced, Gov. Gavin Newsom requested that the U.S. Department of Commerce declare a federal fishery disaster, which could provide financial relief to the industry and fishing communities. Approval — which can take a long time — is still pending.
The overall amount of seafood caught in California has dropped since 2014, following severe droughts and a marine heat wave, conditions that scientists say are becoming more frequent with climate change. In 2014, 360 million pounds of seafood was landed, or brought on boats to California docks, compared to 185 million pounds in 2022 (with fluctuations in between), according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
When it comes to king salmon, 2.3 million pounds were landed in 2022, compared to 3.8 million in 2013, according to Fish and Wildlife. But numbers dipped even lower in 2016 and 2017, due to drought.
The Dungeness crab fishing industry suffered at least $71 million in losses between 2015 and 2020 following the marine heat wave that led to restrictions to protect whales, according to the authors of a study from UC Santa Barbara and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“That actually was a bigger impact than the loss of the salmon season,” said Pillar Point fisherman Rick Hauschel.
Restaurants at Pillar Point Harbor are seen shuttered with empty tables in Half Moon Bay, where fishermen usually sell from the docks but haven’t had much to sell with the closure of the salmon fishing season this year.
Jessica Christian/The ChronicleCommercial fishers may still catch other types of fish this summer, but prices have collapsed, with black cod only commanding 50 cents a pound, while fuel prices are high. Black cod, spotted shrimp, halibut, albacore and rockfish somehow lack the draw of coral-red, omega-3 rich king salmon, they say.
“These are delicious fish, they’re local, they’re in season, sustainably caught, well managed — all the things that people in San Francisco should be excited about,” said Sarah Bates, a salmon fisher in San Francisco. “And we can’t sell it.”
Even with the closure, fishermen still have to make payments on their boats and permits and have other fixed costs. And because they have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in their equipment, they can’t give up until there is absolutely no hope left.
“Nobody’s looking to buy a salmon boat right now,” said Bates.
Reach Tara Duggan: tduggan@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @taraduggan
