California salmon closure leaves local fishermen defeated

By Sean Cunneen Cub Reporter

For the second time in California history since 20082009, the salmon fishing season has come to a complete halt. The season was shutdown after record low numbers of salmon returned to California’s rivers. The closure has a wide-ranging effect on the entire state of California and, even more specifically, here in Marin County.

Junior Luke Piacente, the co-founder of the fishing club at Redwood, explained the immense economical impact of the salmon shutdown on students and families in Marin.

“The salmon season closure will have a large effect on the families who are involved with commercial and sport fishing. Many families who make a profit off of catching salmon are now no longer able to do so,” Piacente said.

Piacente then described his disappointment about the closure of salmon season in relation to his daily life

“I started fishing at a very young age after my dad introduced it to me in middle school. Once I got older, I was fortunate enough to have access to a couple of boats and ever since then I’ve gone fishing around twenty to thirty times a year. With the season now completely shut down, I feel a large part of my enjoyment for this year and upcoming summer has been thrown away,” Piacente said.

Jared Davis has been the head captain at Salty Lady Sportfishing Company for over 30 years in Sausalito. Being a regular fisher, Davis explains the major cause for the significant decrease in salmon spawning down the river.

“It all has to do with the water that flows through the rivers, into the bay and out to sea. The salmon need an adequate amount of water flowing through the river to return as adults to lay their eggs and see those eggs hatch and survive,” Davis said.

Davis then explained how large corporate farms are overusing large amounts of California’s water reservoirs.

“The problem we have has much to do with the massive corporate agricultural industry in the central valley of California. Around 80 percent of the water from these rivers is used by multi billion-dollar corporations for crops such as almonds and pistachios to gain personal profit,” Davis said. “The corporations are worsening the problem of decreased amounts of water flowing downstream, presenting many disasters that are destroying the salmon population.”

Scott Tucker, a former mountain biking coach at Redwood and a board member of Cal Trout, provides solutions to the fishing community of Marin that want to help contribute to restoring the salmon population.

“There’s a number of organizations in California that help from a conservation standpoint, such as the Wild Salmon Center, that work along the coast to give people an understanding of what the salmon are up against. They also hold many hands-on interactive projects educating on how to help fix problems such as habitat restoration. The organization I am a part of is the largest group dedicated to removing California dams to increase spawning habitat. If we do this we can increase spawning habitats by over 80 percent in rivers such as the Klamath River Basin,” Tucker said.

Tucker explains a more simple and straightforward approach to how anyone can provide a helping hand in this crisis, even those with little to no experience in fishing.

“Getting involved with activities that contribute to refurbishing the salmon’s habitats and learning what challenges are being presented against the salmon are simple approaches [that everyone] can take to help support the cause,” Tucker said.

Whether you know a lot about fishing, nothing at all or somewhere in between, anyone can help the crisis California is experiencing right now by becoming educated on the topic and working to save our salmon. Spread the word, save our fish.