photo credit: Marc Albert/KRCB
With the season closed, the fishing fleet sits idle in Bodega Bay harbor.

 

 

Ten months after an initial request was filed, the US Department of Commerce today announced more than $20 million will be made available to a salmon industry stuck in port due to another cancelled fishing season. That's less than half of the $45 million sought, according to North Bay congressman Jared Huffman, who said he wants answers.

Meanwhile, the wait for aid is taking a toll locally, and its not quite over.

While welcome, the latest announcement won't help much in the short term. The official release says the approval enables the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to work with state officials on administering the relief funds, "in the coming months."

That's cold comfort for Sara Bates, a commercial salmon fisher since 2006.

"The declarations are a step in the right direction, but declarations don't actually pay the bills," Bates said.

The last time she caught and sold salmon was October 2022.

She and other salmon fishers have survived closed seasons before. Bates says many picked up jobs in construction, electrical and mechanical repair. Going out fishing for other species also helped tide her over financially. This past year though, that hasn't been true.

"The dock price on rock fish and albacore and black cod this year was abysmal. It was so low that a lot of boats couldn't pay the fuel bills, couldn't pay the crew, and it really didn't make sense to go harvest those fish," Bates said..

In hard times, she added, people turn to peers and colleagues, but right now, that's not an option.

"When you're entire community, you're entire industry is belly up, it's really hard to support each other."

She's not alone. Paul Wedel faces the same headwinds. He said for four decades he's been going for salmon out of Bodega Bay. Right now, he's living off of savings, supplemented by crabbing. And he says he's not sure how long he can continue.

"It depends on will the crab seasons hold up, or do we have no salmon season next year, and not much crab and then, you can't rebuild your savings," Wedel said.

Wedel has seen good and bad years, behind the wheel of his boat, the Debbie Marie. Though salmon, he believes are generally becoming less abundant, the future is very uncertain.

"It's so up and down anymore, we'll have a year where there's a lot of fish around, we feel like they don't give us as much time as we should be getting when there are a lot of fish, and then two years later, close down completely. So, I guess it's pretty hard to predict," Wedel said.

Getting out of fishing isn't easy either, especially not now.

"The value of boats and permits definitely goes down in a time like this. It's pretty hard to convince somebody who is new to fishing that it's a good idea to invest in a salmon boat or a salmon permit right now," Bates said.

For her, it's a little like doomsday.

"Historically there were half a million fish coming up the upper Sacramento River. In the fall of 2023, there were literally a couple hundred, and that's not enough. That's not even the right order of magnitude."

Despite all the habitat restoration, the species clearly isn't doing well. According to Bates, it's now or never.

"There's a window here, and we're smack in the middle of it. As Californians we are making the decisions right now that are going to determine whether or not this fish goes extinct."