After nearly a three-year closure, Bay Area sport salmon fishing is back, and North Bay fishermen are celebrating a season already producing impressive catches.
Commercial salmon fishing season has been closed in California for the past several months and fishermen in Half Moon Bay are "struggling just to try and survive."
"We have crews that depend on us, we have families to feed," said Sarah Bates, a salmon fisher based in San Francisco. "I am not exactly sure what we are going to do this summer."
A new report shows that the drought in California is killing the winter-run Chinook salmon species found in the Sacramento River, and one scientist says this species will not be the last to take a hit.
"Animals right now are struggling so hard because of pollution, because of climate change, that every single animal just is fighting, and we need to help all of them as much as we can," said senior Kate Carlson.
Between Lake Sonoma and the Russian River watershed, roughly 60,000 acres burned. That means potentially 60,000 acres of debris flowing down and possibly impacting the fish.