The latest salmon report from the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) paints a bleak picture for California’s fall-run Chinook salmon. In 2024, an estimated 99,274 adult salmon returned to the Sacramento River Basin—just 55% of the management objective of 180,000 fish. The PFMC will formally review these numbers in March before determining regulations for the upcoming fishing season. This sharp decline follows back-to-back closures of the salmon fishing season in 2023 and 2024, marking only the third and fourth times in history that salmon fishing was banned in California. The closures have devastated the state’s commercial and recreational fishing industries, which typically contribute $1.4 billion annually and support 23,000 jobs.

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