News Archive

The California Fish and Game Commission acted on several issues affecting California’s natural resources at its April 17-18, meeting in San Jose. The Commission approved a major amendment with special conditions as recommended by the Department of Fish and Wildlife to an experimental fishing permit related to pop-up gear testing in the Dungeness and rock crab fisheries.

California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is kicking off the annual trout season opener with freshly stocked lakes, and with the mild weather it’s a great time to take advantage of an annual California tradition. The 2024 opener starts Saturday, April 27, one hour before sunrise throughout many counties in the state.

On Wednesday, April 10, 2024, the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) acted unanimously to recommend closure of California’s commercial and recreational ocean salmon fisheries through the end of the year, mirroring recommendations made last year to close the fisheries in 2023.

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. Aerial and vessel surveys conducted in mid-March show humpback whale numbers are increasing as they return to forage off the coast of California, elevating entanglement risk. To minimize this risk for humpback whales, changes to the Dungeness crab fisheries, as detailed below, will be effective at 6:00 p.m. on April 8, 2024.

CDFW has confirmed that the mountain lion euthanized in a remote area near Georgetown yesterday was the same animal involved in a fatal attack earlier in the day. CDFW’s Wildlife Forensics Laboratory determined today that DNA samples collected from the scene match samples taken from the lion carcass. The male mountain lion weighed approximately 90 pounds and appeared to be in healthy condition.