Commercial salmon fishing returns to Pillar Point Harbor after three-year closure

“I’m going to have to remember how to do it,” local fisher Steve Meis joked. “We’ve got to figure out where all our gear is.” 

For Half Moon Bay fishers, the season will open and close periodically from May to August, with first opening dates from May 1-6 and limits of up to 160 salmon per open period. It’s not a full season, but it is better than expected, Meis said. 

“It’s a baby step, kind of thing,” he said. “They can’t have it closed for three years, have hypothetical numbers of fish that are in the ocean, and just open it wide open.” 

Off-the-boat sales of fresh-caught fish is the most exciting part of salmon season for many San Mateo County locals, Harbor District General Manager James Pruett said. 

“Everybody is excited about off-the-boat sales,” he said. “As soon as the commercial season opens, there will be plenty of salmon to sell off the boats, and we’ll be pushing it real hard.” 

The CDFW is also glad to offer commercial salmon fishers more opportunity than previous years, the agency said in a press release. It attributed the more positive salmon population outlook to dedicated work from the state in recent years, including restoring habitats, removing migrational barriers and upgrading infrastructure. 

“Seeing our salmon populations recover is incredibly heartening and demonstrates what’s possible when we all work together — state and federal partners, tribes, sport anglers and commercial fishing interests, NGOs and others — to do what’s best for salmon,” CDFW Director Meghan Hertel said in the release. 

Recreational fishers will have additional chances to get out on the water as well, the press release said, though in-season management of the season will continue based on harvest guidelines. The harvest limit for the season is 83,000 salmon, according to the CDFW. 

The limiting guidelines are frustrating for some fishers, like Meis, who said they essentially even the playing field between larger and smaller boats, even though the cost to get larger boats on the water is far greater. 

“We need to get away from the quota fishery,” he said. “We’re not used to the quota, which evens everybody out and it’s not a fair way of doing it.” 

Fisher Tim Obert, who sits on a number of salmon advisory boards, acknowledged that the quota system can feel unfair for some, but said he saw it as a necessity to reopen a fishing industry facing challenging times and limited stock. 

“The harvest limit is not a bad thing. We want to rebuild this fishery, we want to make it strong,” he said. “It is a really tough one, because at some point, it’s not really fair to medium to larger boats that are held to that limit, with the cost of overhead.” 

But overall, an open salmon season isn’t just beneficial to fishers, but to customers and the retailers who sell the gear alike, Meis said. 

“Everybody who supplies us, they need to keep selling us stuff so they can stay in business,” he said. “If you stay away from it for too long, the infrastructure falls apart.” 

Fishers are displaying cautious optimism that the salmon industry might once again become viable, Obert said. 

“I think this is the beginning,” he said.