Welcome to today's edition of Boiling Point. I'm Ian James, climate and environment correspondent at The Times, replacing my colleague Sammy Roth.
Salmon is king.
It's a phrase I've heard more than once when I've interviewed people who depend on fishing and asked them what the closure of the salmon fishery last year meant to them.
Along the California coast from May to October, commercial fishing boats and sport fishing vessels chartered are usually in the ocean transporting salmon. But declining populations led to the cancellation of last year's season, and this year's fisheries regulators will soon consider whether to ban fishing for another year, or allow a minimal season with restricted dates and catch limits.
I spoke with people in a few fishing communities to find out how they were affected by the closure, and what they thought were the factors that led to the decline in salmon and other fish populations.
“It's been devastating for the small communities, the coastal communities, because that's our main income in the summer,” said Jeremy Dirks, who lives in Bolinas and has been fishing for more than three decades.
A fishing boat emerges from Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay.
(Lauren Elliott/For The Times)
Dirks fishes from a small boat with a rod and sells his catch. When he couldn't catch chinook salmon last summer, he turned to halibut and tuna.
It's been a struggle. Dirks told me that the last two years were probably the worst years of my entire career.
He and others said they see various reasons for the decline in Chinook salmon numbers, including dams that have eliminated the fish's habitat, losses to predators, and how fish hatcheries are managed.
The fish also suffered during a severe three-year drought from 2020 to 2022, when water flowing from Shasta Dam was at times so warm that it was fatal to salmon eggs in the Sacramento River.
How water is managed in the Sacramento River and other rivers can make or break fish populations. Several people I spoke to said they largely place the blame on California's water managers, who they say are sending too much water to farms and cities, depriving rivers of the cool flows that salmon need to survive.
“It hits the water,” said Kenneth Brown, who sells fishing gear and bait at his Bodega Tackle store in Petaluma. “It's all about poor water management.”
Brown said his business was down 40% due to salmon fishing closures last year, and the outlook this year isn't much better.
“Salmon is the big one,” he said. “Salmon is a big part of our industry for us. It's devastated the whole area.”
Photographs of Chinook salmon caught years ago adorn a wall inside a tackle shop at Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay.
(Lauren Elliott/For The Times)
I visited Half Moon Bay to speak with fishermen at Pillar Point Harbor, many of whom said they had turned to other businesses to make ends meet. Some said they were offering boats for sale.
Commercial fisherman John Schultz, who has been in the business since 1998, said his boat was tied up in the harbor for most of last year, and he is now looking to stop fishing. Schultz said he remains hopeful that the salmon will eventually recover enough to have a full fishing season again. But the question is: “Who will be here five years from now to go fishing?”
Tom Matusch, chairman of the San Mateo County Port Commission, showed me around the harbor, where crews were unloading lobster. He has fished for decades but sold his charter boat in 2021.
He shared his perspective on how California's water management impacts salmon.
“A lot of water is diverted toward agriculture, and a lot of water is sent to Southern California,” Matusch said. “But as far as salmon are concerned, they don't have enough of the cold, fresh, clean water that they need.”
California's mission now is to “rebalance and reimagine the things that are necessary for salmon, to rebuild these stocks,” he said.
“You have to know when water is needed for certain operations, and how to balance the needs of people and fish,” he said.
In my story about the salmon fishing closure, I also spoke with Charlton “Chuck” Bonham, director of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, who outlined the state’s plans to help salmon populations recover.
Even as the fishery goes through this difficult time, state officials are focused on actions that can “change the course,” Bonham said.
“Now is the time,” he said. “The salmon are in our hands.” “There is hope. we can do this.”
In that regard, here's a look at what's happening in California and around the West:
Most important news
California is benefiting from its second wet winter, with an average snowpack of 110%. Gov. Gavin Newsom joined state officials in the final snow survey of the season, introducing a new water plan that prioritizes climate change adaptation. He said the state's strategy includes moving forward with the proposed Delta Transportation Project, a 45-mile tunnel that would transport water under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The tunnel project is controversial and faces legal challenges, but Newsom described it as “one of the most important projects this state can advance.”
When it comes to snow and water, California goes through boom-and-bust cycles, as the past several years have shown. Droughts and floods are expected to become more severe with climate change. My colleague Sean Green has produced a great graph showing the rise and fall of the Sierra Nevada snowpack over the past 20 years. He says the mapping “provides a long-term view of the state's highly variable climate and the patterns that determine our water fortunes.”
As for wild weather, Southern California has seen some heavy rain recently. As my colleagues Grace Toohey and Hayley Smith report, downtown Los Angeles has received more than 52 inches of rain in the last two water years as of this week — the second-highest amount ever recorded. There has not been such a large amount of rain for two years since the late 1800s. In the words of one meteorologist, this is “well above normal.”
Climate science and more
Last year was the hottest year on record on Earth. But the sudden rise in global temperatures has far exceeded what statistical climate models predicted. What might this mean for future temperature rises? Climate scientists are now trying to understand why the temperature in 2023 will be abnormally high, and Hayley Smith wrote an article for The Times examining what scientists are saying, and they have different theories.
When we talk about greenhouse gases heating the planet, the gases most often discussed are carbon dioxide and methane. But there are other types, such as sulfuryl fluoride gas, which kills termites, and has been found to be 4,800 times stronger than carbon dioxide at trapping heat. My colleague Melody Petersen wrote about new research in which scientists were surprised to discover that California emits more of this global-warming pesticide than all other states combined.
One way to reduce methane emissions is to compost food scraps instead of throwing them in the trash and decomposing them in a landfill. But what is the correct way to compost? Maggie Bidleman, Yadira Flores, and Karen Garcia have produced a helpful video explaining how to do this.
Energy transformation
The US Environmental Protection Agency has issued tough new emissions standards for heavy trucks and buses, aiming to cut air pollution and tackle climate change. As Los Angeles Times reporter Ross Mitchell explains in an article about the new standards, California's rules are stricter than the Biden administration's, and are expected to remain so.
Although the federal government has sought to promote clean energy, the country has also seen an increase in natural gas production. As Alexander C. wrote: Kaufman told HuffPost that the United States sold more liquefied natural gas on the global market than any other country last year, “passing another milestone in the country’s transformation into a fossil fuel superpower.”
Wildlife in the West
Scientists have found that there are some important differences between groups of killer whales. All black and white whales are currently classified as one species, Orcinus orca, but this may change. My colleague Leila Seidman wrote a great article about new research that argues for the existence of distinct species of killer whales, and about a strange story dating back more than a century: how a San Francisco whaler in 1869 described two species of killer whales, only to discover that the work had been sidelined. Here's how Leila explains the significance of the latest findings: “Approval of two newly proposed species of killer whales could change the way we conserve them — and turn a page in one of the strangest chapters in the history of marine mammals.”
Some migratory shorebird species rely on salt lakes, including Mono Lake in California and Great Salt Lake in Utah, for their long migrations. One species, Wilson's phalarope, has suffered decline along with the salt lakes on which it depends. A coalition of ecologists and scientists has petitioned the federal government to seek protection for the Wilson's bird under the Endangered Species Act. Freelance journalist Daniel Rothberg covered the groups' efforts to gain additional protections for phalaropes, writing that “the last 20 years of drought and constant water demand have created significant challenges, drying up ecosystems and making habitats uninhabitable for the small invertebrates that birds like phalaropes live in.” “. “The phalarope depends on it.”
My colleague Luis Sahagún wrote an amazing story about rattlesnakes that you won't want to miss. He spoke with a biologist who explained that his research shows there's a lot more to reptiles than most people think. Here's what William Hayes, a research biologist at Loma Linda University, had to say: “Rattlesnakes are among the most feared, misunderstood and abused animals of all time. However, they are not completely different from us. They, too, have fears and emotions and find comfort in companionship.”
another thing
Luis Sahagún has had an impressive career at the Los Angeles Times. A staff writer for 43 years, he has written a wide range of stories on topics ranging from religion to California wildlife.
While reporting, he saw levee breaks on the Mississippi River, experienced a 7.2-magnitude earthquake in a Mexico City high-rise, and chased brown tree snakes on Guam.
He was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize in Public Service in 1984 for a series on Latinos in Southern California, and in 2015 was part of a team that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News.
For many years, he unearthed unique and powerful stories that served as a staple of The Times' reporting on the environment and other topics in California and the West.
It is difficult for many of us in the newsroom to believe that Lewis has now ended his amazing career at the newspaper and signed into retirement. So, as we share some of his final stories for the Los Angeles Times, I'd like to encourage everyone to go read some of Lewis's best work. One of his most recent articles focuses on how the global wine glut is causing problems for California grape growers. Other must-read stories from the past few years include Lewis' articles on desert tortoises, Mono Lake, and the oldest tree in California.
All of his recent work can be found on his Los Angeles Times author page. As my colleagues and I bid farewell, we wish Louis the best in his upcoming adventures!
This is the latest edition of Boiling Point, an email newsletter about climate change and the environment in California and the American West. You can sign up for Boiling Point here. And for more climate and environment news, follow @ByIanJames and @Sammy_Roth on X.
