A Conversation with Regional Administrator Jennifer Quan About the 2026 West Coast Salmon Fishing Seasons

After 3 years with salmon fishing closed, what kind of a salmon season can California expect this year?

I'll start with what everyone wants to see this year, which is a season that puts the fleet back to work, gets everyone back on the water, and puts California salmon securely back on the seafood market. That's what we're striving for.

The way we get there is with a fishing season that provides confidence that enough salmon will survive to spawn in the rivers and continue to strengthen the species and the fishery. Only a few years ago Sacramento River fall-run Chinook salmon were designated overfished, and other salmon and steelhead populations on the West Coast listed under the Endangered Species Act continue to struggle. Sacramento River fall-run Chinook salmon are the backbone of the California salmon fishery and are no longer overfished. Last year, for the first year in some time, their returns exceeded expectations. We want to maintain a solid foundation of fall-run Chinook returns that, like the principal in a bank account, support sustainable salmon fisheries. We need strong salmon fisheries to make the U.S. seafood sector more competitive, providing jobs and putting more healthy domestic seafood on American dinner plates.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council began shaping the salmon season at its March meeting, releasing three alternatives of what the fishing season could look like. Scientists used models to estimate how much fishing the stock can support while still leaving enough fish to spawn future generations. It's an intricate evaluation based on forecasted salmon returns that accounts for different stocks on the West Coast-including endangered species-to determine when, where, and how much fishing they can sustain. This happens all along the West Coast, looking at each of the rivers and populations. They outlined three options. Now those are out for everyone to review and comment on, and the Council will make a final call in April.

Are the 3 years without fishing the reason there are more salmon now?

The purpose of the closures was to let more salmon return to rivers to spawn and strengthen their numbers. The California salmon fleet recognized how important that was and sacrificed their income over those 3 years without fishing. Tribes also sacrificed fishing over the last several years in hopes for healthier salmon runs.

Science reminds us that nothing about salmon is simple. Salmon cross so many boundaries there is never just one reason for more salmon, or less. The sacrifice of the tribal and non-tribal fishermen was important, as was the partnership and support of irrigation districts and water users throughout California.

But restricting fisheries alone will not rebuild the California stocks. I spent much of last week visiting farms in the Central Valley with Eugenio Piñero Soler, Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries. We walked the fields with irrigators and visited the dams that store water with the fishermen. We saw first-hand the extensive resources and dedication that go into providing this valuable water supply to farms and cities, while also exploring science-based approaches to help fish that also support the California economy:

• The facilities and systems at Shasta Dam that manage the temperature and volume of water releases to deliver water for agriculture that also assists salmon
• Short- and long-term efforts to upgrade water treatment and fish-rearing facilities at Livingston Stone National Fish Hatchery
• Creative thinking by the Bridge Group, such as examining whether agricultural fields can provide rearing habitat and food for juvenile fish
• The design, testing, and operation of the Bioacoustic Fish Fence at Georgiana Slough, which keeps juvenile salmon on course to the ocean
• The East Bay Municipal Utility District's careful and holistic habitat, flow, and hatchery approaches on the Mokelumne River
• Construction of a fishway around Sack Dam, maintaining water for farms and making the San Joaquin River safer for salmon
• The Salmon Conservation and Research Facility, a conservation hatchery that will help fully realize the San Joaquin River Restoration Program and water reliability for local communities.

We may see each other as "different sides," but what we heard from irrigators, fishermen, and others was a common commitment to continue to work together. In line with the Administration's policy to prioritize water for communities and farms, together we can ensure a sustainable future for California and the salmon fishery.

What does salmon fishing on the West Coast look like in the longer term?

Most everyone would like to see fishing opportunities increase, but that will depend on many fluctuating factors lining up in support of salmon. NOAA Fisheries' ocean surveys and monitoring help us understand that the ocean is changing in new ways that challenge the models. For instance, salmon in recent years have concentrated off the coast of the Bay Area to prey on ballooning anchovy populations, making them easier to catch. While they may appear to be more abundant, they are just more concentrated in different places. Our surveys help us unravel these changes.

We have a special obligation to uphold the rights of tribal nations to harvest salmon that are a centerpiece of tribal life. We share science and collaborate with tribes, who have seen their salmon catch dwindle to where hatcheries now keep tribal fisheries going.

Where do we go from here?

The salmon fishery depends on adults that return to rivers to spawn more salmon, provided they survive their migration downriver and the years they spend in the ocean. The last few tough years in California without fishing brought people together in an unprecedented way. People from different walks of life started talking, thinking about how to improve the odds for salmon.

We'd like to know more about strategies such as rearing salmon fry in rice fields or holding them in netpens, so they imprint on river water and come back to spawn. Can these strategies improve their survival enough that more return as adults? That will take improved monitoring, which is also important for the intricate projections necessary to set the ocean harvest. The more we know about those strategies that work, the more successful we will be. We are better together, but we need good science to make good decisions. We also need you to participate, and provide feedback on the Council's alternatives.