News Archive

BIG PINE – The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) announced that a sustained power outage has led to the widespread loss of fish at the Fish Springs Trout Hatchery. The power outage, which was outside CDFW’s control, occurred in the afternoon of Tuesday, May 20, 2025, in the Owens Valley, and lasted more than two hours. Fish Springs Trout Hatchery, powered by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, has backup diesel motors which can supply continued water pumping during power outage events. During the power outage on Tuesday, the backup diesel motors were non-operational due to a software issue. A contractor had been previously scheduled to come to the hatchery on Thursday, May 22 to diagnose the software issue, assess the motors, and help CDFW resolve the problem.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has made the difficult decision to cease hatchery operations at the Mad River Fish Hatchery in Humboldt County. A combination of increased regulatory burden and a lack of flexibility, aging infrastructure, significant and necessary costly repairs and maintenance, modernization needs, and low fish production and returns forced the decision to close the steelhead trout hatchery just east of Arcata.

Following a recommendation from state health agencies, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) announced the reopening of the commercial rock crab fishery in northern California from the California/Oregon border (42° 00.00’ N. Lat.) to the Humboldt Bay entrance at the north jetty (40° 46.15’ N. Lat.). This area has remained closed for nearly a decade following a domoic acid outbreak and lack of sampling effort in subsequent years.

California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Director Charlton H. Bonham has assessed entanglement risk under the Risk Assessment Mitigation Program (RAMP) and announced changes to both commercial and recreational Dungeness crab fisheries in the Central Management Area. These changes, which will go into effect at 6 p.m. on May 1, 2025, are intended to minimize entanglement risk as humpback whales return to forage off the coast of California.

California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Director Charlton H. Bonham has assessed entanglement risk under the Risk Assessment Mitigation Program (RAMP) and announced changes to both commercial and recreational Dungeness crab fisheries. These changes, which will go into effect at 6 p.m. on April 15, 2025, are intended to provide continued fishing opportunities while minimizing entanglement risk as humpback whales return to forage off the coast of California.