This year is probably going to be the smallest ocean salmon harvest on record, as the West Coast fisheries agreed on Thursday to halt all commercial salmon fishing of the coasts of California and Oregon.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council voted to cancel all commercial salmon fishing, but decided to allow limited recreational fishing of coho salmon only on holyday weekends off the Oregon coast. As for the Californian coast, there will be no salmon fishing allowed, as the members said that every fish counts in their attempt to recreate the region’s once abundant fish runs.

The move came as scientists and government officials warned that this year‘s West Coast salmon season would be the worst in history, due to the collapse of Sacramento River chinook, one of the coast’s biggest wild salmon runs and the fact that in recent years, salmons found less and less food in the ocean off the coasts of California an Oregon, where they tend to settle, instead of going north to feed off Alaska. This means it is more and more difficult for salmon to survive.

Scientists are trying to clearly find the causes of the salmon’s collapse, which could range from climate change, pollution to ocean conditions and habitat destruction.

For this year, biologists have predicted the lowest return on record for the Sacramento River Chinook, which is one of the causes for which the council wants to protect these stocks.

The council's decision is now to be confirmed by NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service, the federal agency that is in charge of salmon management.

The decision is expected to affect both fisheries and customers, as the former’s revenues would decrease sharply, but also little supplies and higher prices for consumers.