California salmon fishing slated to shut down this year due to low stock

Chinook Salmon swim up a fish ladder at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Feather River Hatchery just below the Lake Oroville dam during the California drought emergency in 2021. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

Chinook salmon fishing off the California coast will be called off until next spring in anticipation that a near-record-low number of fish will return to the state's rivers to spawn.

The recommendation was made by the Pacific Fishery Management Council, a federal commission that oversees West Coast fisheries. It will need to be approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service by May 16.