White Sturgeon Fishery decisions will be made by Fish & Game Commission
- August 22, 2024: Press Release from CDFW on White Sturgeon. Fish and Game Commission Approves Catch-and-Release Sport Fishing for White Sturgeon; Currently Closed Season Expected to Reopen Oct. 1, click here.
You can watch the Fish & Game Commission meeting on Cal-Span.org, click here.
The full video will be made available later by FGC for rewatching if you missed it live. If the link is not working, contact them at: https://fgc.ca.gov/Contact
Agenda Item 14 & 15 for White Sturgeon emergency regulations were presented and commented on by the public during DAY TWO (Thursday, Aug. 15) of the meeting in Fortuna, CA.
• Read the staff report on White Sturgeon Emergency Sport Fishing Regs During California Endangered Species Act Candidacy, click here
• Link to CDFW’s John Kelly’s presentation to the Commission: click here. Kelly is part of the Sturgeon Project Work Team that provides a technical forum to discuss Central Valley sturgeon issues and encourages, facilitates, and coordinates sturgeon monitoring, research, and information dissemination.
• Director Chuck Bonham lobbied the FG Commission for a no harvest of sturgeon during the ESA candidacy listing process. Click here to listen, scroll to the 50 minute mark. Bonham later quoted a Western Outdoor News (WON) editorial written by one of the board members of Calif Sportfishing Protection Alliance who also writes for WON. He quoted the editorial during the meeting to support his position of a no harvest instead of any science paper or any kind of metrics. The ESA listing petition was brought forth by San Francisco Baykeeper, Restore the Delta, the Bay Institute, and the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.
WON editorial on Sturgeon 1: click here, article 2: click here
Questions can be sent to sturgeon@wildlife.ca.gov
• The newest Commissioner Darius Anderson stated in the meeting he doesn’t know what the actual sturgeon population numbers are (scroll to the 1:45 minute mark). Vice President Erika Zavaleta commented she does not base her decisions on perfect data, but rather the data that is available to them at the time. She seemed unsure what the sturgeon floor numbers actually were from the two algal bloom incidents (red tides) that killed perhaps numerous sturgeon.
Biologists weren’t sure of the numbers either. Click here for an 2022 article that stated: “Right now, we don’t know exactly how many sturgeons are even out there,” says UC Davis fish geneticist and conservation biologist Andrea Schreier, another of the cowriters. “We have an idea of where in the Sacramento River they spawn, but we don’t know the exact spawning location.”
• NCGASA president James Stone gave oral presentation of economic impacts if the FGC closes the White Sturgeon fishery for good, click here and scroll to the 57 minute mark to listen.
• For the coalition letter NCGASA wrote to the FGC before the meeting, click here.
• James Smith of Golden Gate Fishermen’s Association co-wrote the letter. Donate or Support GGFA by liking their Facebook page.
• Who are your Fish and Game Commissioners? click here
• Public Comments Summary: Several guides and businesses such as Steven Mitchell from Hooked Up Sportfishing and Big Red Worm Company spoke up and gave public commentary (scroll to 1:00 mark) telling their personal stories about the economic impacts a non-harvest fishery will do to their businesses. Others pointed out CDFW’s limited data on the sturgeon population numbers and expressed their disappointment that another fishery industry closure will negatively impact their business or close their business when the guides have already taken a hit with two salmon closures. Click here: Guides have not seen any disaster relief money from the Salmon closures. They asked why the CDFW & FGC do not provide any plans on how they will deal with the other stressors on the fishery (harvest take, water, red tides, pollution, etc) and expressed their disappointment that fisheries are being closed one by one by the FG Commissioners who seem far removed from the fishing community who are on the water everyday and don’t feel the sturgeon population is in serious decline.
FGC President Samatha Murray commented at the meeting after public testimony that she would like to go on a boat to see what the catch and release fishery is all about and would love to see it for herself.
Note: In a previous meeting Murray had stated that “fishing is a privilege and not a right.” All Water Protection and Access Coalition corrected her statement: click link (The three key principles of the common law Public Trust Doctrine; the right to fish, the right to navigate, and the right to access public tidelands and submerged lands, have been enshrined in the California Constitution since 1879.)
• Decision today was White Sturgeon fishing will be reopened for a CATCH & RELEASE fishery while the species is under review during the ESA process. NO HARVEST. The Office of Administration Law still has to weigh in on the current emergency regulations before catch and release goes into effect.
The next Fish and Game Commission meeting will be in Sacramento on October 9-10, 2024. Show up and get your voices heard. Links to this meeting will show up on their website at: https://fgc.ca.gov/Meetings/2024
Listen to the California Sportsmen Show with Sep Hendrickson for updates from Steve Mitchell of Hook’d Up Sportfishing, James Smith of GGFA and James Stone during his radio show and Apple podcast on Saturday, Aug. 17.
Subscribe to NCGASA’s Youtube channel for fishery updates! https://www.youtube.com/@norcalguides
