Photo Longview News Journal
Gazing out at San Francisco harbor from her wooden fishing boat, Sarah Bates looks glum.
In happier times, she would head out to sea every morning. But for much of this year, she has remained hopelessly docked, due to a ban on salmon fishing as a result of California's drought.
"Salmon is my main fishery and it's 90 per cent of my income," says the 46-year-old.
In force since April along the entire coast of the Golden State, and parts of neighboring Oregon, the moratorium will last until the end of the salmon fishing season in September.
It was brought in as the number of salmon expected to return to the region's rivers has plummeted close to historic lows.
The decades-long drought gripping the American West, aggravated by climate change, has seen the levels of California's rivers drop, and their waters grow warmer.
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