Half Moon Bay fishermen reeling from lost income amid salmon fishery closure

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. (KGO) -- Commercial salmon fishing season has been closed in the state of California for the past several months and fishermen in Half Moon Bay are feeling the impacts.

At Half Moon Bay's Pillar Point Harbor, it's so quiet even the sea lions are bored.

"It's quiet, you look at this harbor and it's just empty, there's no activity," Porter McHenry, a commercial fisherman said.

McHenry says at this time of the year, from May to October, he would typically rely on salmon.

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Salmon season is closed for 2023 as the drought from recent years limited it's ability to breed, and now there aren't enough for commercial fishing.

"There's going to be nothing until crab season," he said.

Back in March, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said the drought from recent years limited salmon's ability to breed and that there weren't enough to open the commercial season this year.

McHenry says because of this, he hasn't made any income in seven months.

"We're just hoping to weather the storm and the economy and everything will turn around, maybe the politics will straighten out, not going to hold my breath," he said.

And he's not the only one trying to keep his head above water.

"With the closures of the salmon, and also the closures on the groundfish, the rockfish for us, my business is off over 90 percent," Captain William "Smitty" Smith, Owner of Riptide Sportfishing said. "I am struggling just to try and survive."

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Capt. Smitty specializes in taking small groups out to fish on his passenger-carrying boat, but without salmon, he's pivoting to focus his tours instead on whale watching and ash spreading.

"This has been very difficult because without the income of our passengers taking them out fishing, we're down to scraping the bottom of the barrel here, just trying to meet our bare minimum expenses just to try and survive," he said.

Pillar Point Harbor is still open. The only fish being sold from boats on Tuesday, however, is frozen, brought in from Alaska.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife says the Dungeness crab season is expected to reopen by November 4th of this year.

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