New Regulation on Sturgeon Fishing to Take Effect Tuesday as Fish Population Dwindles

Only catch-and-release will be allowed as state officials seek to reverse dramatic decline of species whose origins date back 200 million years -- and which holds a special place in Martinez

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The fish most identified with Martinez can still be caught recreationally but must be released back into the Bay under new regulations set to take effect Tuesday, Oct. 1.

The recent decision by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) prohibiting anglers from keeping white sturgeon, the largest freshwater fish in North America, reflects the increasingly dire state of the fish species whose origins date back approximately 200 million years — or 100 million years before Tyrannosaurus rex roamed the earth. The white sturgeon population in California has plummeted an estimated 80% in the past 25 years because of various human-caused factors, according to CDFW, and the agency over the summer approved it as a candidate species for listing under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA).

Last November, CDFW issued an emergency order reducing the number of sturgeon that could be kept to one per year. Then in July, the state prohibited the “take” of any sturgeon, including by catch and release, while agreeing to consider it for listing as a threatened species under the California Endangered Species Act.

Anglers petitioned to allow catch and release, saying a total ban would be devastating to recreational fishing boats and bait shops. The commission agreed, allowing the change to go into effect Oct. 1.

Jay Rowan, fisheries branch chief for CDFW, says the department has significant concerns about the long-term health of the white sturgeon population.

“There are two issues going on here,” he said. “White sturgeon are (swimming in) probably one of the most heavily managed river systems in the world. And that’s combined with what we’re seeing with climate change, where it's not this far off, distant concept any more. It’s here, and it’s causing impacts.” 

As any person who has hooked one will attest, sturgeon are hardy, resilient (and often very large) fish that don’t go down without a fight. But a perfect storm of factors have coalesced to decimate the local population over the past quarter century. (White surgeon’s cousin, green sturgeon, are already protected as a threatened species).

Rowan says the Bay/Delta population once consisted of several hundred thousand fish, decreased to fewer than 30,000 fish big enough to be harvested, and likely fell further due to a large 2022 algal bloom that led to a massive fish die off. A big concern is the reproduction rate, which scientists say puts the population at risk. 

California Department of Fish and Wildlife photo

White sturgeon have been off limits to commercial fishing since 1917. But the building of dams, levees and other human changes to the waterways of the Central Valley put further stresses on the fish, contributing to habitat loss and making it more difficult for the fish to spawn. 

White sturgeon can live upwards of 80 years, do not begin to spawn until their teenage years, and only do so once every seven or so years. The fish’s most successful spawning seasons occur during high water years when they can migrate upriver, but California’s increasingly intense droughts, along with water diversions from the Delta and Sacramento River to meet agricultural demands, have made reproduction more difficult.

In addition, the fish also has been subjected to overharvesting in some years, and is often poached because of the value of its caviar. 

Harmful algal blooms in local waterways also have contributed to large fish die offs in recent years, and were the impetus of a contentious decision by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board in July to require significant nutrient reductions for all wastewater treatment plants discharging into the Bay. Nitrogen present in wastewater encourages the algal growth, which can then deplete the oxygen supply, causing fish to die. The new rule was stridently opposed by the Central Contra Costa County Sanitary District (Central San), which argued that it was cost-prohibitive and not backed by science.

During the big 2022 algal bloom, the carcasses of more than 800 white sturgeon were counted, and that was likely an undercount, Rowan said. 

Jon Rosenfield, science director for San Francisco Bay Keeper, says that selenium, a naturally occurring element — and present in the wastewater of the Bay Area’s refineries — is also a likely culprit for white sturgeon’s decline. The refineries are required to remove some toxins from their wastewater — but not selenium, so long as it remains below a certain threshold. Rosenfeld says the selenium releases at this level are harmful, and their accumulation has been documented in the invasive clams eaten by white sturgeon in the Delta and Bay. Once ingested, that puts the fish and anyone who eats them at risk. 

“Fishermen are upset that they can’t harvest white sturgeon, but I wouldn’t recommend that anyone eat them,” Rosenfield said. 

Rosenfield authored the petition that asks the federal and state governments to list white sturgeon as a threatened species. The petition will need to be approved before the fish gains federal protections. However, it already has gained state protections while the California Department of Fish and Wildlife investigates the listing’s merit.

Another, albeit less significant, factor in the struggle of the sturgeon population, at least according to one Bay Area researcher, has been vessel strikes that kill the fish. Though sturgeon are bottom-dwelling fish, they will travel closer to the surface to ride currents through the Carquinez Strait as they travel between their feeding grounds in San Pablo and Suisun bays, according to Nicholas Demetras, a fishery biologist with the Fisheries Collaboration Program at UC Santa Cruz. He’s been studying the issue of vessel strikes for several years and documenting dead sturgeon that wash up along Martinez and other local shorelines.

“At a minimum, vessels are killing a hundred fish a year,” he said. “That is what we’re seeing on the beaches. Is that number representative of the number actually killed? That’s what we need to find out.”

Although the ecological factors battering the sturgeon population are not easily reversed, CDFW is hopeful that ending — for now — the harvest of white sturgeon through fishing can at least stem the decline.

“Removing harvest but allowing catch-and-release is going to give the population time to rebound, and we may be able in the long run to see population growth,” Jonathan Nelson, CDFW’s environmental protection manager, said in a CDFW video that is part of the agency’s “Conserve the Sturg” campaign.

CDFW also plans to step up monitoring and tagging of the species to better determine its true population. Although the taking of sturgeon caught in Bay waters is no longer allowed, the sportfishing experience will continue thanks to catch-and-release, Nelson said.

Captain Jack Medinas is a fishing guide who offers charter boat experiences in the Delta and San Francisco Bay. Fishing is how he makes his living, but he supports the ban on killing white sturgeon. He says that 15 years ago, one could find the fish in various parts of the Bay, but today they’re only found in a narrow area, primarily from Martinez to Pittsburg. 

Long popular in Martinez fishing circles, the sturgeon has become a prominent symbol of community pride in recent years as the mascot of Martinez’s professional baseball team. While Martinezians have been rooting on the Sturgeon baseball team at Waterfront Park the past few summers, there has been much less attention paid to the losing battle being fought by the fish itself in the Carquinez Strait a short distance away. 

“You’ve got a fish that’s struggling on both sides of its life cycle,” Medinas said. They’re struggling to reproduce, and then they’re being killed where they live, he explained.  

He says the prehistoric fish, which can grow ever larger as they age, are special with a thrilling ability to fight. 

“When it comes to white sturgeon, when you see that fish coming flying out of the water, you’ll remember that your whole life,” he said. “I can’t remember 99 percent of the halibut I caught, but a fish like that (a white sturgeon), how can you forget it?”

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