For the first time since 2022, the recreational Chinook salmon fishing window will open.

Few fish species are as emblematic of the freshwater-to-saltwater connection as the Chinook salmon, who start their lives in rivers and streams before migrating out to the ocean to feed, and then travel back to the river to spawn. It’s a dramatic journey, one imperiled by many hazards and predators (humans among them), as well as the impacts of climate change.

So it’s perhaps no surprise that, for the third consecutive year, California’s beloved commercial Chinook salmon fishery has been canceled. Chinook are one of the largest salmon in the Pacific, and face growing threats from low river levels, wildfires, harmful algal blooms and more. Drought years are especially devastating: warmer summers heat shallow rivers, effectively cooking vulnerable salmon eggs without the insulating buffer of deeper, cooler water.

However, this year marks a small return. The window for recreational Chinook salmon fishing will open for the first time since 2022, though only for two days in summer: June 7-8. The Pacific Fishery Management Council, which manages West Coast fisheries, has capped the catch at 7,000 salmon statewide. If that cap isn’t met, another two-day window will open July 5-6. A fall season is also scheduled for Sept. 4-7 with a 7,500-salmon cap; if not met, the fishery will reopen Sept. 29-30.

“Salmon are extremely resilient,” says Kandice Morgenstern, an environmental scientist at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “They come back really quickly if they just get the conditions that they need. We could have healthy fisheries in the somewhat near future, but we’re not going to know what each year is looking like until we see those fish return in the fall.”