Salmon in California are struggling – facing drought, river heatwaves, polluted runoff, poor spawning habitat, and barriers to fish passage – is it a wonder that the salmon fishing season in California is canceled, again. Robert Lusardi, Associate Director at the Center for Watershed Sciences and faculty member in the Wildlife, Fish, & Conservation Department at UC Davis, says almost half of California's native trout and salmon species could disappear in the next 50 years. The full closure of the 2024 commercial and recreational salmon fishing season was done in the hopes to let the population recover

"And so what we have left are essentially small populations that are not diverse, and that means that they are not resilient to change."  – Robert Lusardi, Center for Watershed Sciences Associate Director  

Listen on NPR from KQED's Morning Edition, "Once again California will not have a commercial salmon season," by Ezra David Romero. 3-minute listen, or read the transcript. April 11, 2024.