There was a time when California's coastline bristled with fishing boats hauling up salmon and other fish by the millions, filling processing plants that employed thousands of people who turned the slippery captives into canned tasties.

But those were the good old days. This year, an eight-day salmon season is expected to produce only a couple hundred thousand chinook, and the last major canneries closed decades ago. The hunts for squid and sardines are better, but the hauls are tiny compared with the boom times.

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