Well yesterday was interesting! The Director resigned, the first budget proposal was presented and the Thurston County Court just upheld the lower decision in which the Puget Sound Harvesters Association (gillnetters) argued the 2012 commercial season in Puget Sound was illegal as it did not provide gillnets the same opportunity to fish as purse seiners. The court found that the Department's position that the non-selective nature of gillnets that had higher mortality for bycatch than seines was justification for refusing the gillnetter's request for more fishing opportunity when it passed the season regulation. All in all the total of all three made for a really really bad day for commercial salmon harvesters.

If you want a copy of the decision just PM me and I will get it to you. The budget draft is running in another thread so take a look.