Louie, A couple of thoughts.

For starters, the difference between the projections in option A and option B are not realistic. I am willing to bet option A is too high because the 5 day option will not likely encourage more recreational crabbing and harvest than option B. All it will manage to do is give people more choices of when to schedule a trip. This was pointed out by Larry B, and I agree.

I also don't think including October will lead to us achieving the projected numbers. We know crabbing drops off significantly after Labor Day and when the season reopens in Nov. most folks don't participate. Adding Oct. won't change it that much.

The last word the advisors got was that CRC sales were down. How that translates into harvest remains to be seen, but it should be lower.

With all that said, why would staff want to bring up buybacks at this time, before we know if there is a need? If the commission wants to know, then why wasn't a buyback included in the policy proposal, since it's in the "old" policy?

Without giving all the facts and buyback options to attendees, it looks like "fishing" to me. Staff would then attempt to sell the commission a bill of goods, as they did with a proposal they themselves presented to the commission for a 4 crab daily limit which the commission wisely rejected.

Lastly, Sporties pay for a shellfish license, fund the CRC data collection AND fund derelict pot removal now.

We should all be opposed to paying for anything else until we get treated fairly by WDFW.