Tag Archives: fisherman Sarah Bates
Boat tours and ash scatterings help beleaguered California salmon fleet stay afloat
“The bills keep going, whether I’ve got a fishery or not,” said Smith, who runs Riptide Sportfishing in Half Moon Bay, California. “There’s no season on when people die.” California’s sport and commercial fishermen have been walloped by two years of salmon closures and are bracing for a potential third, which they blame on a years-earlier drought and state and federal water management policies they say have made it tough for the species to thrive. The closures have taken a toll on people’s livelihoods in coastal communities where salmon, fishermen say, is a special fish. “We are people that are hardworking and it’s our jobs on the line,” said Sarah Bates, a commercial fishing captain in San Francisco. She said local markets have been devastated by the salmon closures and Bay Area restaurants aren’t snapping up halibut or other catch as they did salmon. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 06:36
Low salmon numbers in California could prompt shutdown of fishing for a record third straight year
California’s salmon population has declined so severely over the last several years that regulators canceled the fishing season in 2023 and again in 2024. This year, state estimates show the number of Chinook salmon is still so low that fishing could again be prohibited — or if not, sharply limited — to help fish stocks recover. “A lot of the guys right now are basically doing land jobs because the fishery has just been devastated,” said George Jue, a commercial fisherman at Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay. Even as many fishing boats have sat idle in the harbor lately, Jue and a group of other fishermen have been busy hauling in traps filled with crabs. Once that season is over, Jue said, he expects little or no salmon fishing this year. “This harbor is going to be dead.” more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 08:50
Toxic Dust Threatens California Salmon Population, Lawmaker Seeks Solution
For the first time in more than three decades of fishing for salmon near Bodega Bay, Dick Ogg will motor his white and navy boat, Karen Jeanne, north this summer past his typical fisheries in hopes of finding the multicolored species along the Oregon coast. There aren’t enough salmon left off the California coast for Ogg to sell on Bodega Bay’s historic docks. “We, as fishermen, have nowhere to turn,” he said. Fishery managers are signaling they may cancel California’s commercial salmon season for the second year in a row, which means the 71-year-old has two options: temporarily traveling to Oregon to catch salmon or barely making ends meet luring in rockfish and sablefish. Ogg, often in a gray hoodie and wiry sunglasses, wishes there was a solution for boosting California’s salmon schools. He describes the species as “having one of the greatest spirits” an ocean-fairing creature can have. Photos, more, >>click to read<< 11:34
‘Simply catastrophic’: California salmon season to be restricted or shut down — again
California’s fishing industry is bracing for another bad year as federal managers Monday announced plans to heavily restrict or prohibit salmon fishing again, after cancelling the entire season last year. The Pacific Fishery Management Council today released a series of options that are under consideration, all of which either ban commercial and recreational salmon fishing in the ocean off California or shorten the season and set strict catch limits. California’s commercial fleet and recreational anglers still await federal disaster aid for last year’s losses. Tommy “TF” Graham also will keep working on land. A commercial fisherman based in Bodega Bay, he got a Class A driver’s license so he could drive a truck and stay afloat through the closures. Now, when he’s not crab fishing, Graham wakes up at 3 a.m. to drive frozen and farmed salmon and other fish from around the world into San Francisco. “A guy has got to get up and put his boots on and go to work every day,” Graham said. Still, he said, “I used to be a provider, now I’m a consumer. It feels like shit, to tell you the truth.” more, >>click to read<< 21:24
California could have avoided salmon season shutdown. Did we learn nothing last time? by Sarah Bates
I fish salmon commercially from Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. You can see the Golden Gate Bridge from my boat, where Chinook have passed for millions of years on their journey from the ocean, through the bay and Delta, up the Sacramento River. There is communal anticipation before the first trip of the summer, checking anchor winches and hydraulic hoses, safety equipment, leaders, weather reports. Boats are freshly painted and deck tanks for holding fish are installed. Not this year – this year feels like a funeral. >click to read< by Sarah Bates 09:52
Choppy Weather and Fishing Limits gets California salmon season off to slow, expensive start
Commercial fishing boats may only fish south from Pigeon Point on the San Mateo coast, instead of in the typical area open all the way to Mendocino County this time of year. Strict limits on this year’s salmon season were set by the Pacific Fisheries Management Council in consideration of what’s expected to be a smaller population of adult king, or chinook, salmon in the ocean this year. The geographic limitations and conditions are keeping local fishing boats in Monterey Bay for now, but some of the fish are making their way to the Bay Area. Sarah Bates came down to Monterey Bay from San Francisco with a crew member on her boat, F/V Bounty. “Everybody is in the bay because it’s the only place to hide from the afternoon wind,” The limited season means they don’t have much of a choice, Bates said. “We feel pressure to fish in bad weather where there’s so few days,” she said. “We’re pretty much going to go fishing no matter what.” photos, >click to read< 21:09
