The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance presents this blog to inform members, subscribers, and the general public on the major issues facing California sport fisheries. The focus is on salmon, steelhead, trout, sturgeon, smelt, panfish, rockfish, and bass, as well as their habitats. We cover environmental topics related to fisheries such as water supply, water quality, hatcheries, harvest, and habitats. Geographical coverage is from the ocean to headwaters, including watersheds, streams, rivers, lakes, bays, ocean, and estuaries.
We address current issues and topics of interest to readers. We discuss the effects of drought, river flows, water diversions, pollution, and government regulations. We organize topics in the various themes, threads, and key words.
Contributions come from scientists, managers, regulators, and advocates, but the focus will be the reporting and analysis of relevant science by professional fisheries biologists with a long history in California fisheries science and management. Where appropriate, we provide perspectives from the Pacific Northwest.
While we do not include a forum for comments and discussion, we do invite email comments and suggestions. Our goal is to protect and help improve fishing opportunities in California by providing a voice for and from sport fishing enthusiasts. We focus on solutions rather than just reiterating old problems. We strive to get the most up-to-date information for our readers. We get ideas and opinions from experts, and push those ideas that provide promise. We try to sort, filter, and analyze information and news that pours forth from the government, other organizations and interests, and the media every day. Where solutions are not apparent, we try to find them.
Bay Delta Issues
The Sacramento San Joaquin Delta remains the focal point of California water issues and the life blood of many California fisheries. With indicator species at or near all-time lows, and the need for water at its greatest, more demands on the Delta are being made.
Rivers and Streams
Rivers and streams are the heart’s blood of California fisheries. Many are degraded or are in serious decline. They need transfusions of water and improvements in watershed health, water quality, and physical habitats. Despite being part of the public trust, they are often locked behind the closed doors of private lands with little or no protections.
Marine, Coasts, Estuaries
These critical habitats are the home of many of our sport fisheries, whose management remains complex and controversial.
Salmon, Steelhead, Sturgeon, Trout, Shad, Bass, and Stripers
These are the major sport fisheries in California. We must protect them so that our children can also enjoy them in the future. Sport fishing remains one of the most important points of entry to life-long enjoyment of the outdoors. Sport fishing enthusiasts are among our greatest environmental protectors.