In the port of San Francisco, Sarah Bates is depressed these days: Instead of going to sea every morning, she is desperately stranded at the dock because of the ban on salmon fishing due to the drought in California.
“Salmon is my main catch and it makes up 90% of my income,” squeaks this 46-year-old fisherman aboard her wooden boat.
The ban, in place along the entire Golden State coast since April, will last through the end of the season in September, and will also affect parts of neighboring Oregon. Because of the drought that has plagued the American West for years, the number of salmon that are expected to be upstream in the region’s rivers is near historic lows.
Photo: AFP
Exacerbated by climate change, it has meant that the rivers, which are already criss-crossed by dams, are too low or too hot. Under these inhospitable conditions, the fish have difficulty swimming upstream to reproduce, and their offspring often die before reaching the sea.
The season’s cancellation is a major blow to California, where salmon fishing brings in $1.4 billion a year and creates 23,000 jobs, according to the Golden State Salmon Association.
Photo: AFP
One of the dockside restaurants is now supplied by aquaculture farms in Canada to keep fish on the menu.
“Salmon is king (…) that’s what people want,” summarizes Craig Hanson, owner of a boat that is rented out to sport fishermen. The fish, praised for its taste, is also “very spectacular”, the sixty-year-old recalls: even after biting, “it fights to the end”.
Dramatic decline
The sailor, who was used to going out every day in summer, now weighs anchor only four times a week: fishing for halibut or striped bass is less enthusiastic among his customers.
Despite this shortcoming, the entrepreneur supports the ban. “If it can help the industry in the future, then I’m all for it,” he says, hoping for a recovery thanks to the heavy rain and snowfall this winter.
However, we still have to be patient: Many fishermen are already expecting another zero year in 2024.
“Chinook salmon caught here in California typically have a life cycle of three or four years,” says Nate Mantua, a scientist at the US Agency for Oceanic and Atmospheric Observations (NOAA). “If something happens to them in fresh water, in the form of eggs or juvenile fish, the impact on the fisheries is felt two or three years later.”
Photo: AFP
Dramatic today, their decline began a good ten years ago. And not just because of the lower water levels in the rivers, which the authorities tried to compensate for by releasing the salmon babies directly into the sea by truck.
Between 2014 and 2016, Pacific waters reached temperatures never before seen in North America.
These “sea heat waves” resulted in “poor growth and survival conditions for salmon,” summarizes Mr. Mantua. Without cold currents rich in essential nutrients, the fish have become prey to other starving species.
As a result, most salmon in North America are in trouble.
Photo: AFP
“It’s not just a Californian problem,” emphasizes the specialist. “It’s actually all of the Pacific, with a few exceptions,” including some species from Alaska.
Farming, finger pointing
But in California, “our fish were already vulnerable to climate shocks,” he adds.
With a population of 40 million, the nation’s most populous state has upgraded its rivers to support its cities and agricultural sector, which is critical to feeding the United States. Between dams and canals, salmon have lost 80% of the habitats they need to spawn.
Water management, largely the responsibility of central California farmers, is now causing tension. In San Francisco, many fishermen are demanding that it should be used to feed the rivers and not to the producers of almonds, pistachios or walnuts, which are very water intensive and mostly destined for export.
“Water is more important to fish than nuts,” says Ben Pointer, a sailor on a sport-fishing boat.
In addition to paying federal grants to compensate for the fishing ban, the fleet is closely monitoring government efforts to restore salmon habitat. Like on the Klamath River in Northern California, where a major project to destroy four hydroelectric power plants has just begun.
Without real water management reform, “we’re going to be in that situation again in the face of future droughts,” fears Ms Bates on the quay. “Climate change is happening, and faster than any of us expected.”