4. Fishing Profile: Commercial and Recreational Fisheries

4.1 Gear Types

Fishermen from San Francisco primarily use the following gear types:

• Traps and Pots
• Trawl
• Longline
• Troll
• Purse Seine

4.2 Commercial Fishery

4.2.1 Fleet Description

In 2021, 88 of the state’s 6,650 commercial fishing license holders reported San Francisco as their home address, 195 of the state’s approximately 1,674 active commercial fishing vessels landed catch at the port, and 203 of the state’s 3,148 registered commercial fishing vessels were homeported in San Francisco. (Note: License counts are based on addresses in San Francisco and do not include other communities in the larger San Francisco Bay area. For all state licenses count does not reflect those with out-of-state addresses. For vessels registered with the US Coast Guard, owner mailing address city was used to determine home port.) The number of fishing license holders in San Francisco grew from 164 in 1998 to 189 in 2001, then varied some but overall declined to 88 in 2021 (Figure 9). San Francisco-based fishers are older on average than California fishers as a whole: the average age of commercial fishing license holders in Califorinia in 2021 was 49, with a median age of 48, whereas in San Francisco the average age was 53 and the median age was 57.

Figure 9: Commercial Fishing License Holders in San Francisco 1998-2021

For several state- and federally managed fisheries, a fishery-specific permit is required. In some cases such as the state-managed Nearshore Fishery (which covers 19 species, most of them rockfishes), the permit is assigned to the fisherman. In others such as the federally managed groundfish trawl fishery, the permit is assigned to the vessel. Fishing permits in 2018 (Figure 10) that were either linked with vessels homeported in San Francisco or to fishers with a San Francisco address included: 70 resident Dungeness crab permits (1 non-resident), 7 halibut trawl permits, 2 coonstripe shrimp permits, and 34 salmon stamps (132 salmon vessel permits). Salmon stamps are an indicator of the number of fishermen participating in commercial salmon fishery and typically are not limited; salmon vessel permits are restricted and are an indicator of the number of vessels/operations allowed to participate in the fishery.

Figure 10: Commercial fishing permits by type held by fishers and vessels with a San Francisco address and statewide, in 2021

CaliforniaSan Francisco

The number of San Francisco commercial fishing vessels has fluctuated over time, though declined overall since 1990 (Figure 11). Between 1998 and 2000 the resident fleet shrank by about half (227 vessels), largely a result of declines in the groundfish fishery, which prompted the 2000 Federal fishery disaster declaration, and led to the subsequent vessel buyback program which removed three trawl vessels from the San Francisco homeported fleet. Around the same time, the herring fishery was facing increased variability and depressed prices and salmon landings were on the decline. In 2021, vessels homeported at San Francisco averaged 37 ft in length, ranging from 16 to 83.2 ft with a median length of 37.5 ft (Figure 12).

Figure 11: Commercial fishing vessels homeported at San Francisco and average vessel length 1989-2021

Figure 12: Commercial fishing vessels homeported in San Francisco  by length in 2021

4.2.2 Primary Fisheries and Trends

In terms of commercial landings for the period 1992-2021 (Figure 13), Dungeness crab, groundfish have been the top fisheries, together accounting for 42% of landings at the port (Figure 14). In terms of ex-vessel value for the period 1992-2021, Dungeness crab, groundfish and salmon have been the primary fisheries, accounting for 67% of the ex-vessel value at the port (Figure 15).

Figure 13: Top Commercial Fisheries for San Francisco for periods, 2021, 2017-2021, 1992-2021

Dungeness crabGroundfish Market squid

SalmonCalifornia halibutOther

Figure 14: Commercial landings (by weight) at San Francisco for top fisheries and all else, 1989-2021*

* The dataset for this graph has been redacted to remove data deemed confidential by California Department of Fish and Wildlife. CDFW does not publicly release data pertaining to three or fewer fishers, vessels, or businesses. 

Figure 15: Ex-vessel value of commercial landings at San Francisco for top fisheries and all else, 1989-2021*

* The dataset for this graph has been redacted to remove data deemed confidential by California Department of Fish and Wildlife. CDFW does not publicly release data pertaining to three or fewer fishers, vessels, or businesses. 

The herring roe fishery has run every year since its inception except in 2010 when managers closed the season. However, the fishery began to decline after 1999 due to reduced prices, high variability in species abundance, and restrictive management measures (Figure 16).

Figure 16: San Francisco commercial Pacific herring fishery landings and ex-vessel value, 1989-2021*

* The dataset for this graph has been redacted to remove data deemed confidential by California Department of Fish and Wildlife. CDFW does not publicly release data pertaining to three or fewer fishers, vessels, or businesses. 

The groundfish and salmon fisheries each accounted for 11 of ex-vessel value over that 30 year period. However, annual groundfish landings dropped substantially through the 2000s after the 2000 groundfish disaster (Figure 17). As Figures 18 and 19 show, the distribution of catch among groundfish species groups (e.g. nearshore rockfish, shelf and slope rockfish, and sablefish) shifted with implementation of the Nearshore Fishery Management Plan and the establishment of the Federal Rockfish Conservation Area (Table 2) (Source).

Figure 17: San Francisco commercial groundfish fishery landings and ex-vessel value, 1989-2021

Figure 18: Ex-vessel value of commercial landings of groundfish species groups at San Francisco, 1989-2021*

* The dataset for this graph has been redacted to remove data deemed confidential by California Department of Fish and Wildlife. CDFW does not publicly release data pertaining to three or fewer fishers, vessels, or businesses. 

Figure 19: Weight of commercial landings of groundfish species groups at San Francisco, 1989-2021*

* The dataset for this graph has been redacted to remove data deemed confidential by California Department of Fish and Wildlife. CDFW does not publicly release data pertaining to three or fewer fishers, vessels, or businesses. 

Although salmon landings and ex-vessel value have declined since the 1970s and 1980s due to declining salmon returns and habitat issues, it remains an important fishery for fishers in San Francisco and along much of the coast. Salmon landings saw a brief increase in the early 2000s, but landings went into sharp decline leading up to and after the 2008 statewide closure (Figure 20). Salmon landings more than tripled from 2018 to 2019. Though landings declined somewhat in 2020 and 2021, the salmon fishery constituted 10% of total weight of landings at the port in 2021. Salmon’s importance is reflected in the number of permits (associated with vessels) and stamps (associated with fishing licenses) held in San Francisco in 2021, which was the highest proportion of permits there.

Figure 20: San Francisco commercial salmon fishery landings and ex-vessel value, 1989-2021

Among the other commercial fisheries with landings at San Francisco are swordfish (indicated as highly migratory species), Northern anchovy and some Pacific sardine (both aggregated as coastal pelagic species) (Figures 14 and 15). Highly migratory species accounted for more than 6% of the total landings and 9% of the value at the port from 2009-2018 (Figure 22), perhaps due in part to and sharp reductions in other fisheries such as groundfish and Dungeness crab (e.g. 2015 delay) (Figure 14 and 15). The coastal pelagic fishery constituted almost 10% of landings in the port in 1989 but declined steadily with no landings since the early 2000s, except for an unprecedented peak year in 2009 for the sardine fishery.

Figure 21: San Francisco commercial coastal pelagic fishery landings and ex-vessel value, 1989-2021*

* The dataset for this graph has been redacted to remove data deemed confidential by California Department of Fish and Wildlife. CDFW does not publicly release data pertaining to three or fewer fishers, vessels, or businesses. 

Figure 22: San Francisco commercial highly migratory species fishery landings and ex-vessel value 1989-2021

More recently, from 2017-2021 Dungeness crab, market squid and groundfish were San Francisco’s top fisheries in terms landings. In terms of ex-vessel value, Dungeness crab, salmon and California halibut were the ports top fisheries for the same period (Figure 13). Market squid, a relatively new fishery to the port, ranked second at the port by weight after Dungeness crab, accounting for 16% of landings for that period (Figure 23). Whereas Dungeness crab was first in terms of both landed weight and value accounting for 41% and 54% respectively for the period 2017-2021. Dungeness crab landings dropped in 2015 (Figure 24) due to delayed openings caused by domoic acid and in 2020 due to delays related to whale migrations and entanglement concerns (see also section 5 of this report “Current Issues Affecting the Port’s Fisheries”).

Figure 23: San Francisco commercial market squid fishery landings and ex-vessel value, 1989-2021*

* The dataset for this graph has been redacted to remove data deemed confidential by California Department of Fish and Wildlife. CDFW does not publicly release data pertaining to three or fewer fishers, vessels, or businesses. 

Figure 24: San Francisco commercial Dungeness crab fishery landings and ex-vessel value, 1989-2021

4.3 Recreational Fishery

Of the state’s 622 licensed Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessels (CPFV)––for-hire recreational fishing boats––in 2021, 30(5%) are homeported in San Francisco, accounting for 4% of statewide landings. Based on CPFV trip logs and landings data, the primary recreational fisheries are rockfish, Dungeness crab, salmon, and California halibut. Basses and salmon were the most targeted after unspecified species (e.g. ‘other’) in 2021. These numbers do not reflect recreational fishing conducted on private vessels or shoreside. Nearshore groundfish catches accounted for 45% of all for-hire landings at the port in 2021, followed by Dungeness crab (21%), salmon (15%), and California halibut (10 %) (Figure 25). Although San Francisco was historically an important port for salmon sport (and commercial) fishing, increasingly stringent federal fishery management measures to address declining coastal salmon stocks beginning in the late 1980s led to a significant drop in fishing activity, with profound implications for the port’s recreational for-hire sector. Dungeness crab became an important target species in the early 2010s. Similar to the commercial fishery, the recreational Dungeness crab fishery experienced a delay in the 2015 season-opening that dramatically impacted landings that year.

Figure 25: CPFV landings by species at San Francisco, 1989-2018

In 2021, the 30 CPFVs homeported at San Francisco reported a total of 1526 trips. Based on the CPFV logbook data for 1989-2021, the number of reported CPFV trips slowly declined from 1989 until 2008 when the salmon fishery was closed statewide (Figure 26). Trips then began steadily increasing after 2008, except 2015-16 when the recreational Dungeness crab fishery opener was delayed due to elevated domoic acid levels. Averaged over the years 1989-2021, salmon accounted for 42% and rockfish species accounted for 35% of CPFV landings (Figure 25). Landings have varied considerably over the same period; however, their overall trend reflects a decline until 2010, then some fluctuation but a general trend towards increasing until 2021 (Figure 26). Landings dropped in 2001 after the groundfish disaster, in 2008 during the salmon closure, and in 2016 related to the domoic acid delays in the Dungeness crab fishery.

Figure 26: CPFV landings at San Francisco, 1989-2021

4.4 Fishery Management

California’s commercial and recreational fisheries are variously governed by a mix of state and federal entities with distinct and overlapping management authorities depending on the species and sector. State management authority lies with the Legislature, the Fish and Game Commission and the Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). Federal authority lies primarily with the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). Other state and federal entities also play a role in the governance of some fisheries.

Information about management of this port’s primary fisheries:

• Dungeness Crab
• Groundfish
• Market Squid
• Salmon
• Swordfish

Figure 27: Seasonality of Selected North Central Coast California Fisheries, 2018-19 (adapted from Culver & Pomeroy)

4.5 Fishing Organizations