There’s more bad news for another Northern California river and its popular game fish. The Pacific Fishery Management Council has published a preseason report showing last year’s fall run of Sacramento River fall-run chinook salmon dropped to its lowest number in 37 years of record keeping.

Now, many officials are warning that salmon fishing should be closed on the river this year to protect future runs.

"This is very bad news for West Coast salmon fisheries," council chairman Don Hansen said in a news release. "The word 'disaster' comes immediately to mind, and I mean a disaster much worse than the Klamath fishery disaster of 2006."

The council will meet later this month (March 9-14) to discuss the topic further.

Graph courtesy Pacific Fishery Management Council