News Archive

Salmon are swimming again in the North Yuba River for the first time in close to a century. The fish are part of an innovative pilot project to study the feasibility of returning spring-run Chinook salmon to their historical spawning and rearing habitat in the mountains of Sierra County.

The California Fish and Game Commission (Commission) adopted emergency regulations for the commercial coonstripe shrimp fishery and approved an experimental fishing permit (EFP) to test longlining gear in the Dungeness fishery, among other action affecting California’s natural resources at its Feb. 12-13 meeting in Sacramento.

California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot and California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Director Charlton H. Bonham today joined with the Round Valley Indian Tribes, supervisors from Humboldt, Mendocino and Sonoma counties, California Trout, Trout Unlimited and other state and local leaders to announce a historic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for a water agreement that will ensure water reliability for 600,000 or more of coastal Californians, farmers and ranchers while allowing the Eel River to again flow free to benefit salmon, environmental health, tribal and local communities.

In a collaborative effort to increase the sustainability of California's salmon populations, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has partnered with the Department of Water Resources (DWR), as well as ocean and inland fishing groups to continue a pilot project aimed at diversifying salmon hatchery release strategies.

As part of statewide efforts to help Californians and wildlife recover from the Southern California fires, on Jan. 23 the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and its partners rescued 271 endangered Southern California steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) from Topanga Creek, the last known population of this species in the Santa Monica Mountains.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) invites the public to attend its annual Salmon Information Meeting (SIM) via webinar on Wednesday, February 26, 2025, at 10 a.m. Meeting details, informational materials, and instructions for attendance will be published in advance of the event on CDFW’s Ocean Salmon webpage.

CDFW today announced the selection of 15 projects that will receive funding for the restoration, enhancement and protection of salmon and steelhead (anadromous salmonid) habitat in California watersheds. The total funding for these projects amounts to more than $15 million in grant awards.

CDFW is excited to announce the launch of a web-based platform called the California Inland Recreational Angler Survey, or CIRAS, that will provide the public with helpful fishing information driven by data submitted by anglers.

CDFW has returned California’s only native sunfish – the Sacramento perch – to its namesake city and county, recently stocking 3,000 mostly juvenile fish into a pond at Granite Regional Park to create a unique urban fishing opportunity.

CDFW will open the commercial Dungeness crab fishery from the Sonoma/Mendocino county line to the U.S./Mexico border beginning Jan. 5, 2025, at 12:01 a.m. with pre-soak to begin on Jan. 2, 2025, at 8:01 a.m. This area (Fishing Zones 3, 4, 5 and 6) will be subject to a 50 percent trap reduction. The trap reduction is expected to reduce entanglement risk for humpback whales by decreasing the amount of gear and vertical lines in the water.