The 2-year-old ban on salmon fishing off the California coast has helped fill a boat graveyard run by Bruce Abernathy in Fort Bragg, Calif. Abernathy buys them in hopes of selling their fishing rights when the ban ends. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
Bruce Abernathy, a commercial fisherman for 50 years, used to lease the boats he acquired from frustrated salmon fishermen. “Now I can’t even give them away.” (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
The Jolly Roger decays in salmon fisherman Bruce Abernathy’s boat graveyard in Fort Bragg. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
A life vest hangs in Bruce Abernathy’s boat graveyard. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
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A decaying fishing boat waits in Fort Bragg’s Noyo Harbor for the end of the ban on salmon fishing off the California coast. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
Besie Carine waits for customers at her Fort Bragg restaurant, Carines Fish Grotto. She and her son Dominic say their business is off about one third since salmon fishing was banned two years ago. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
Salmon fisherman Sonny Maahs, 82, waits as his fishing boat the Kromoli is cleaned and painted in Fort Bragg. He blames the death of his son Michael in 2001 on salmon fishing restrictions. He and his son were forced to take their boat into deeper waters in search of crabs when high swells battered the boat and swept Michael overboard, where he drowned. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
A fishing boat leaves Noyo Harbor in Fort Bragg, which has considered a name change. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
