The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has decided to release hatchery juvenile fall-run Chinook salmon directly into the Sacramento River for the first time as the state struggles to help the species recover.
“With Sacramento fall-run Chinook returns at crisis levels and fishing families and businesses having been impacted since 2023, this innovative move is exactly the kind of action we need. We applaud the tireless hatchery staff who made this possible and stand with them in the effort to rebuild our salmon runs and revive California’s commercial and recreational fisheries,” Golden State Salmon Association Executive Director Scott Artis said in a statement.
Faced with roughly a decade of drought-like conditions, California’s salmon populations have plummeted. Regulators first closed the state's commercial salmon fishery in 2023, and in April 2025, the Pacific Fishery Management Council voted to keep the fishery closed for a third straight year.
Despite the closure, salmon populations have still struggled to recover. The California government has been trying to help the species recover; in 2024, Governor Gavin Newson released a salmon strategy guiding state efforts to remove dams and barriers, restore habitat, protect water flows, and modernize hatcheries.
CDFW said hatchery production in other parts of California's Central Valley has produced positive signs but the main stem of the Sacramento River is still seeing “concerningly low” returns. Earlier this year, the Pacific Fishery Management Council reported that fall runs of Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River were much smaller than expected, with fewer than 100,000 fish returning compared to a forecast of 180,000 salmon.
With state hatcheries producing an additional 9.7 million salmon above normal production goals in 2025, the department decided to release 3.5 million fish directly into the main stem of the Sacramento River. The release has been timed with increased water flows, and officials expect the fish will imprint on the Sacramento River on their journey to the ocean, returning in three years’ time to spawn and bolster the adult population.
“The naturally spawning Sacramento River salmon populations have been the primary driver of California’s commercial and recreational salmon fisheries for decades,” CDFW Fisheries Branch Chief Jay Rowan said in a statement. “The extra effort by our hatchery staff to maximize production has allowed us to take measures this year to speed up the rebuilding of these critical Sacramento River natural spawning areas. This significant shift in strategy speaks to CDFW’s long-term commitment to boosting these important salmon populations.”
