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It’s believed that only 1 percent of the historical population still exists in the state. While Coho salmon runs are healthy in places like Alaska, California does not allow commercial or sportfishing of the species due to its critically low numbers.
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In 20, California officials shut down Chinook salmon-fishing entirely, leaving not just fishermen adrift, but chefs and consumers without a favorite summer food. This would mean very few wild adult Chinook salmon would return to the rivers in three to four years, making hatchery fish the species’ only hope. Only 5 percent of the Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon survived this year, according to a recent report from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Meanwhile, fishery experts predict the worst for Chinook and Coho salmon. Authorities have cut water supplies to agriculture, forcing farmers to abandon crops or drill wells and buy surplus water at ever-steeper prices. In the ongoing drought, however, both sides of this conflict are suffering. Typically, up to 80 percent of the diverted water is used by agriculture, much of it sent to the arid Central Valley region where moisture-demanding crops like almonds are now being intensively farmed. Dams built for reservoirs on these rivers have cut off many salmon from their breeding areas, which has severely depleted the populations. In California, where commercial and recreational salmon fishing brings in $1.5 billion a year, and agriculture earns $42.6 billion annually, farmers and fishermen have long warred over freshwater from the Klamath and Sacramento rivers. In an unexpected twist to California’s drought saga, it turns out that beavers, once reviled as a nuisance, could help ease the water woes that sometimes pit the state’s environmentalists and fishermen against its farmers. This story was produced by the Food and Environment Reporting Network, an independent, nonprofit news organization focusing on food, agriculture, and environmental health.