News Archive

CDFW will open the commercial Dungeness crab fishery in the Central Management Area (Sonoma/Mendocino County line to Point Conception beginning Jan. 5, 2026.

Snorkeling in an isolated pool on Ackerman Creek north of Ukiah in June, Pinoleville Pomo Nation Environmental Protection Agency Water Resources Specialist Dakota Perez Gonzalez discovered young Coho salmon. These fish, as well as juvenile steelhead trout and Chinook salmon, were disconnected from surface water flow and other suitable habitat and likely to perish when the pool eventually dried up.

In a move to protect red abalone populations that have suffered drastic population decline, the California Fish and Game Commission at its Dec. 10-11 meeting extended the red abalone recreational fishery closure 10 years. The Commission also approved listing Bear Lake buckwheat as an endangered species under the California Endangered Species Act and received the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s status review report for mountain lion in the central coast and southern parts of California.

After a delay to the season opener due to elevated levels of domoic acid, the recreational Dungeness crab fishery opened today in Del Norte and Mendocino counties and part of Humboldt County, though trap restrictions remain in place due to elevated entanglement risk.

As California continues to crack down on the illicit cannabis market, Governor Gavin Newsom today announced three major enforcement operations conducted in November that yielded major results, including eradicating 58,358 plants and seizing about three tons of processed cannabis worth an estimated $56.5 million.