CDFW News

Ocean Salmon Fishing Comeback Continues

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 14:23:08 GMT

Commercial Fishing Returns After 3-Year Closure; Recreational Anglers to See More Open Days in 2026

Significant improvements in key California salmon populations -- specifically Sacramento River fall-run Chinook and Klamath River fall-run Chinook -- will allow for more ocean salmon fishing opportunities this year. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is pleased to announce that commercial ocean salmon fishing is back after being closed three straight years and that recreational ocean salmon anglers will have more opportunities in 2026.

“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,” said CDFW Director Meghan Hertel. “Salmon are part of the cultural fabric of California, and I’m delighted more Californians will have the opportunity to enjoy these magnificent fish whether that’s in the water, on the end of their fishing lines or on their dinner plates.”

The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) finalized its recommendations for California’s recreational and commercial ocean salmon seasons and harvest limits at its April 7-12 meeting in Portland, Ore. The PFMC will forward its recommendations to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which will implement them into federal regulations. A summary of the recreational season dates, locations and harvest guidelines are available at CDFW’s Ocean Salmon Fishery Information web page.

“The health of our salmon populations fluctuates with environmental conditions, and we’ve seen just how vulnerable these fish are to recent droughts, changing river conditions and a warming climate,” said California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot. “This year’s return of ocean salmon fishing is an encouraging sign as we advance California’s long-term, science-based Salmon Strategy. Together with a range of partners, we’re restoring habitat, removing barriers, improving flow and reconnecting rivers to give salmon a better chance to survive in all conditions. This work is about balance -- making improvements and modernizing water management to help nature thrive and our communities prosper.”

California’s Salmon Strategy for a Hotter, Drier Future, put into action beginning in 2024, is laying the groundwork for California to restore and rebuild salmon populations. State agencies, tribes and other partners are making significant progress in achieving goals that include restoring and expanding habitat for salmon spawning and rearing, removing barriers and updating infrastructure for salmon migration. California has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years to support salmon throughout their various life stages.

More open fishing days come as welcome news following complete closure of recreational ocean salmon fisheries in 2023 and 2024, and only six open days in 2025.

In 2026, CDFW will implement in-season management in both commercial and recreational fisheries to ensure catch of rebounding salmon stocks does not exceed seasonal harvest guidelines. This is the first year of vessel-based trip limits and seasonal harvest guidelines for California’s commercial salmon fishery following the first use of an in-season management framework during California’s limited recreational ocean season in 2025. In-season management allows fishery managers to close salmon seasons early should harvest guidelines be reached.

In-season monitoring to actively manage commercial and recreational ocean salmon fisheries to align with harvest guidelines is identified as a priority action item in the California Salmon Strategy for a Hotter, Drier Future.

Sport anglers are advised to check for updated information when planning a salmon fishing trip. Season dates, harvest guidelines/catch limits, bag/possession, vessel limit information and gear restrictions can be found on CDFW’s Ocean Salmon Fishery Information web page or by calling the CDFW Ocean Salmon Regulations Hotline at (707) 576-3429. Public notification of any in-season change to conform state regulations to federal regulations is made through the NMFS ocean salmon hotline at (800) 662-9825.

###

Media Contacts:
Steve Gonzalez, CDFW Communications, (916) 804-1714   
Chester Lindley, CDFW Marine Region, (707) 951-4083  

CDFW Urges Public to Leave Baby Deer Alone

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 12:02:19 GMT

Late spring and early summer are peak times for California’s deer herds to give birth to fawns, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is issuing a reminder to well-intentioned residents and visitors to not interact with the baby deer – even if they find one that appears to be abandoned or hungry.

Adult female deer regularly stash their fawns in tall grass or brush for as long as a day while they are out foraging for food.

“Every year we receive calls from concerned individuals and families about fawns and other young wildlife that appear to be abandoned or in distress,” said Jeff Stoddard, Wildlife Program Manager from CDFW’s Northern Region. “Our direction most often is to stay clear of the animal so the mother feels safe to return and so your presence does not attract unwanted attention to the fawn by people or other animals. In almost every case, the mother returns after dark or when it appears quiet and the mother feels safe to do so.”

Each year, CDFW and wildlife rehabilitation facilities are called to assist with fawns that have been removed from the wild by local residents and those recreating outdoors. The fawns lack the survival skills their mothers would have taught them and cannot be released back into the wild. Long-term captivity in zoos or other wildlife sanctuaries is unlikely due to limited space availability. Consequently, the fawns are often euthanized.

Only a limited number of wildlife rehabilitation facilities are permitted to accept fawns. Due to disease concerns, it is not recommended to move fawns outside of their home county. If a fawn is found on a road or another dangerous location, it is often better to use a towel or blanket and move the animal a short distance to suitable vegetation and allow it to reunite with its mother. A doe will not abandon her fawn merely because it has been touched by a person.

It is both illegal and unethical to feed deer and keep deer in your personal possession. Both crimes are misdemeanors, each subject to penalties of up to $1,000 and/or six months in jail.

Learn more about the dangers and consequences of feeding deer in the following video: CDFW Reminds Californians Why It’s Illegal to Feed Deer.

To report an injured, sick or suspected orphaned fawn, contact your local CDFW regional office directly.

###

Media Contacts: 
Jeff Stoddard, CDFW Northern Region, (530) 768-7146
Peter Tira, CDFW Communications, (916) 215-3848

The Secret Winter Lives of Lake Tahoe’s Black Bears

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 13:41:59 GMT

Keep Tahoe Bears Wild!

Spring is in the air at Lake Tahoe, and black bears are emerging from their winter dens. This includes mother bears with new cubs of the year that are only about 8 to 10 weeks old.

The reproduction cycle began back in the spring of last year, yet the mother bear has only been pregnant since around Thanksgiving. If the math doesn’t add up, here’s why: Black bears have a unique reproductive cycle that allows them to mate in the spring/summer but delay true pregnancy until the fall to increase the odds of success for a healthy pregnancy and fetus.

Black bears mate in the summer from June to August, and the adult females undergo a process called delayed implantation. The sperm from the male fertilizes the microscopic egg inside the female, which quickly develops into a small ball of cells called a blastocyst. At this point, the pregnancy process pauses with the blastocyst floating around in the uterus, suspending further development until the fall. This pause allows time for the female to gain the fat reserves she will need to sustain both herself and any cubs she may have during the upcoming winter hibernation, or torpor, as it’s more accurately called for bears.

Hibernation is tightly related to resource availability, and bears prepare for it in the fall by entering a period called "hyperphagia" (pronounced hi·per·fay·jee·uh). This period is marked by a substantial increase in feeding activity when bears are known to consume about 25,000 calories per day. All bears experience this feeding frenzy whether pregnant or not.

As natural food supplies dwindle and snow gradually blankets the Tahoe Basin, bears naturally go into hibernation to save precious energy and resources. This is because bears do not eat or drink during hibernation, nor do they urinate or defecate. Instead, they have developed the ability to live off acquired fat stores and recycle wastes back into usable proteins. During this period, their heart and metabolic rates drop significantly, and they can lose 25 to 40 percent of their body weight.

The stresses of hibernation are even more pronounced for females with cubs. To prepare for hibernation, the female’s body will carry out a self-evaluation in the late fall. If she has acquired the necessary fat reserves to sustain herself and her cubs throughout the entire hibernation period, the blastocyst will implant onto the uterine wall, and the fetus will begin to develop. In other words, true pregnancy begins. If the female has not accumulated enough body fat, the pregnancy ends and the blastocyst is reabsorbed by her body.

Sometime before Feb. 1, a pregnant female will give birth in the den to a litter of one to four blind, naked cubs weighing less than 1 pound. The female hardly awakens from torpor during birth, becoming just alert enough to lick the cubs clean and move them into a position that keeps them warm and allows them to nurse. The cubs continue to nurse and grow, becoming more active through the remainder of hibernation. A female with new cubs of the year emerges from the den between March and May with cubs weighing around 5 to 7 pounds.

Throughout the cubs’ first year, they learn everything about how to be a bear from their mother, including where to find food and what is dangerous and to be avoided. Cubs of the year are dependent on their mothers for several months and are taught how to forage on natural foods, including grass, berries and grubs. A female with cubs will be busy caring for and teaching her new cubs and will not mate again in the summer. Cubs of the year stay with their mother through the following hibernation and their first birthday, emerging from their mother’s den again the following spring as yearlings. Newly emerged yearlings are typically 50 to 150 pounds, and though they may be a bit awkward, they are well equipped and ready to go off on their own. Mother bears, once free of these “teenagers,” will once again find a mate and breed to continue the cycle of producing cubs every other year.

As omnivores, a bear’s diet is about 85 percent plant-based, with the remaining portion coming from insects, small mammals and carrion. Bears provide essential ecosystem functions, including helping to spread seeds through their scat, transporting pollen on their fur and tongues, cleaning up animals that died during the winter and aiding in nutrient cycling by digging for insects.

Though seeing a female bear with her new cubs can be a very exciting experience, bears play an important role in Lake Tahoe’s ecosystem and allowing them access to human food and garbage is detrimental to natural processes and their health. When mother bears teach their cubs to access human foods, they not only continue the cycle of human food-conditioning, but the cubs are much more prone to conflict, including being hit and killed by vehicles. Cubs taught to seek human food sources do not learn how to forage naturally. Instead, once they separate from their mother, they become dependent on human food sources and pass on the same unhealthy foraging habits to their own cubs.

You can support black bears during their reproductive process by giving females with cubs plenty of space and by securing attractants and human food sources that may lead new cubs down a path toward conflict. It is a shared responsibility to keep Tahoe’s bears healthy, safe and wild!

For more information about black bear reproduction and cubs, visit January / February Is Birthday Time for Bears. For more information on coexisting with bears, visit BearWise.org or TahoeBears.org.

To report human-bear conflicts:

In California, contact the CDFW at (916) 358-2917 or report online using the Wildlife Incident Reporting (WIR) system at apps.wildlife.ca.gov/wir.
Non-emergency wildlife interactions in California State Parks can be reported to their public dispatch at (916) 358-1300.
In Nevada, contact the NDOW at (775) 688-BEAR (2327).
If the issue is an immediate threat, call the local sheriff’s department or 911.

###

Media Contact:
Peter Tira, CDFW Communications, (916) 215-3858

Commercial Dungeness Crab Fishing Opportunities Continue with Alternative ‘Pop-Up’ Gear to Protect Whales from Entanglement

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 15:16:33 GMT

Recreational Crab Trap Restriction Goes Into Effect in Fishing Zones 4 and 5 (Pigeon Point, 37°11' N Latitude to Point Conception, 34°27' N Latitude)

California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Director Meghan Hertel has assessed entanglement risk under the Risk Assessment Mitigation Program (RAMP) and announced changes to both commercial and recreational Dungeness crab fisheries (PDF) in Fishing Zones 4 and 5 (Pigeon Point, 37°11' N Latitude to Point Conception, 34°27' N Latitude).

These changes include authorizing the use of alternative gear, or pop-up fishing gear, for the first time in the commercial Dungeness crab fishery. Pop-up fishing gear uses buoys and lines attached to cages, just like traditional crab traps, however the buoys and lines of pop-up gear remain coiled on the seafloor. When a commercial fisherman is ready to retrieve their gear, a remote signal triggers the release of the buoy which carries the line to the surface and allows commercial crabbers to locate the trap for immediate removal.

“The use of pop-up fishing gear is an exciting new development in California fisheries management,” said CDFW Director Hertel. “For the first time, pop-up fishing gear will allow one of California’s most iconic fisheries to continue. Dungeness crab will still be brought to market while whales and sea turtles are protected from entanglement in those fishing zones.”

Use of this pop-up fishing gear has been tested extensively over several years to ensure gear can be recovered successfully and now provides additional fishing opportunity after the season is closed to traditional crab trap gear. This action is intended to minimize entanglement risk while continuing fishing opportunities as humpback whales return to forage off the California coast.

The commercial fishery will close on March 27, 2026, at 6 p.m. in Fishing Zones 4 and 5, at which time the commercial take and possession of Dungeness crab from those waters is prohibited unless using alternative gear as authorized by the director of CDFW

The use of approved Alternative Gear in Fishing Zones 4 and 5 will be allowed beginning April 3, 2026, at 7 a.m. There are currently two approved alternative gear types that are authorized for use for all commercial Dungeness crab permit holders. Please visit the Whale Safe Fisheries page for more information about the specific gear models and configurations that are authorized for use.

The commercial fishery will remain open in Fishing Zones 1, 2, and 3 (California/Oregon border to Pigeon Point) under existing crab trap reductions. Based on historical migration data, CDFW anticipates an increase in whale abundance in the upcoming weeks. Individuals should remain vigilant and be prepared to remove gear quickly, to minimize entanglement risk in these fishing zones.

A recreational crab trap restriction will go into effect on March 27, 2026, at 6p.m., for Fishing Zones 4 and 5. CDFW reminds recreational crabbers that take of Dungeness crab by other methods (including hoop nets and crab snares) is allowed through the close of the season. CDFW also reminds all fishery participants to implement best practices as described in the Best Practices Guide (PDF).

Pursuant to Section 132.2(a)(2)(E) of Title 14 of the California Code of Regulations, commercial Dungeness crab vessels are authorized to retrieve an unlimited number of commercial Dungeness crab traps which are lost, damaged, abandoned or otherwise derelict in Fishing Zones 4 and 5 starting at 6 a.m. on April 3, 2026. CDFW requests that individuals retrieving gear pursuant to Section 132.2(a)(2)(E) report their activities to WhaleSafeFisheries@wildlife.ca.gov. Any vessel operating or transiting in an open Fishing Zone may not possess more than six traps belonging to another vessel, pursuant to Title 14, California Code of Regulations, Section 132.2(a)(2)(A).

CDFW anticipates the next risk assessment will take place in early April 2026. For more information related to the risk assessment process or trap gear retrieval, please visit CDFW’s Whale Safe Fisheries page. For more information on the Dungeness crab fishery, please visit wildlife.ca.gov/crab.

Media Contacts:
Ryan Bartling, CDFW Marine Region, (415) 238-2638
Steve Gonzalez, CDFW Communications, (916) 804-1714

CDFW Initiates Process to Evaluate Wolf-Livestock Compensation Program

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 16:50:26 GMT

Media Note: Graphic and photos available for download

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has started a process to evaluate California’s Wolf-Livestock Compensation Program (WLCP).

On Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, CDFW held an initial meeting with a group of stakeholder representatives previously involved in the development of the wolf-livestock program.

This meeting marked the first step in a broader public process that will gather input and perspectives from key stakeholder groups involved in livestock production, wolf conservation, research and government agencies, as well as from the public in the coming year. This process will include a rancher survey to garner input, as well as a series of rancher workshops and public meetings to gather a broad base of input on any adjustments to potential future funding, if appropriated by the Legislature and Administration.

This first meeting focused on how best to provide a public process to evaluate potential adjustments to future applications and funding opportunities. This effort relates to potential future WLCP funding, if appropriated by the California legislature and Administration.

CDFW recognizes that the WLCP affects a wide range of interests and will work in the coming months to ensure a broad swath of ranchers, communities, and interested parties are able to provide their input. As always, CDFW welcomes input on current and potential future programs at any time at wolfcompensation@wildlife.ca.gov.

Participants in this initial meeting included representatives from the California Farm Bureau, California Cattlemen’s Association, Western Landowners Alliance, California Wool Growers Association, Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC), University of California Cooperative Extension, University of California, Berkeley, Defenders of Wildlife, the California Wolf Foundation, the California Center for Biological Diversity, Working Circle, USDA APHIS Wildlife Services, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

CDFW will continue working with these groups, as well as ranchers, and communities as the evaluation process moves forward.

Since its inception as a pilot program in 2021, CDFW’s Wolf-Livestock Compensation Program has paid out more than $3.5 million to livestock producers whose operations have been impacted by the return of gray wolves to California.

For more information about the evaluation process, timeline and opportunities to participate please visit CDFW’s Wolf Livestock Compensation Grants webpage.

 ###

Media Contact:  
Steve Gonzalez, CDFW Communications, (916) 804-1714