Well, if you had plans of doing some salmon fishing in California this year, you may want to reconsider. Unless you’ve got an Alaskan fishing trip planned, you’re probably not going to get to fish for salmon at all in 2008.

I can honestly say that I never thought I’d have to write those words, but it’s the new, ugly reality we’re facing.

With 2007’s Chinook salmon run in the Valley down 90 percent from just five years ago and the 2008 forecasts even worse than that, spawning escapement goals are not being met in our rivers, and both state and federal fisheries managers will likely close most or all of California’s saltwater and freshwater areas to salmon fishing.

At the Pacific Fisheries Management Council’s meeting on Tuesday, managers opted to close the ocean seasons that are currently open and will vote later today on whether or not to allow any salmon fishing along the California coast.

At today’s meeting, the Council is looking at three options ranging from a fairly normal season to none at all. Based on the fact that, even with no fishing, the lowest ever return of king salmon is expected for the Valley in 2008, I wouldn’t count on them allowing the sport or commercial guys to fish the salt this summer.

Next month, the California Fish & Game Commission will meet to discuss what sort of regulations and restrictions the rivers will be hit with. Rest assured, however, that if the PFMC today votes to close the entire coast, there’s not much of a chance that we’ll see any recreational angling opportunities for salmon in freshwater, either.

It simply wouldn’t make sense to close down the ocean and then allow people to intercept kings just before they reach the hatcheries or spawning beds.

So, what happened?

It’s simply amazing that we could go from just under 1 million kings in Valley rivers back in 2002, to under 90,000 last fall. Doing the basic math, we’re missing approximately 900,000 fish. How could this have happened?

Well first off, more water than ever is getting diverted away from our rivers and Delta system — it’s getting shipped off to the Westlands Water District and Southern California. And, if Governor Schwarzenegger and U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein have their wishes, more of our liquid gold will be sent to the southland.

Just as devastating (or more so) has been the fact that the ocean off our coast is in sorry shape. There’s been a lack of upwelling in recent years, which brings the nutrient-rich water up from the depths on which the entire food chain is based.

Without that upwelling, it’s a sterile world out there for feeding salmon. Warmer than normal water temperatures are also having devastating effects on the salmon and their food sources out in the ocean.

Huge Impacts

This salmon disaster will have huge economic impacts this season and, likely, for years to come. Aside from salmon guides like me basically losing our jobs, there are a lot of party boat skippers, commercial fishermen, fuel stations, tackle shops, restaurants, motels, boat dealers and more that will be severely hurt.

I spoke with Alan Fong, who manages Fishermen’s Warehouse in Sacramento and he said that 1/3 of his store’s annual $3 million gross is directly related to salmon fishing.

Consider also that salmon annually inject $130 million into the state’s economy. This thing is going to hurt a lot of people. And I think the pain is going to last a long time, too.

J.D. Richey is a 1986 Placer High graduate, and his outdoors pieces have been published nationally. He can be found on the Web at www.fishwithjd.com.