The tribes and other commercials got to crab all fall and winter. We get our chance on June 1st but may face another restriction. The following was sent to me this morning:


Subject: CRab limit change


" The recreational advisors on the WDFW crab advisor group have been notified that the department is strongly considering changing the daily catch limit of dungeness crab down to four (4) in all areas of Puget Sound. The decision will be made June 1.
The shellfish manager for Puget Sound is Lisa Veneroso. If you oppose reducing limits as a broad-brush attempt to extend annual seasons, contact her NOW!!! Her direct phone number is 360.902.2836 and her e-mail address is venerlv@dfw.wa.gov. Let her know a much better way of extending crab seasons would be to give sportsmen a larger PERCENTAGE of the 8 million pound annual harvest. We get barely 16 percent now, giving the tribes and state commercials the rest."

J.D. Wade, recreational crab advisor.

say it ain't so

I finally get my own boat and now this. My wife sure will be disappointed

Thanks for the info Grandpa, mail has been sent. Keep us updated!

Kev

I just sent my e-mail to her.

Dear Ms. Veneroso,

I just read that the State is considering reducing the daily catch limit on crab from 6 to 4 in an effort to extend the crabbing season. I think that it is an excellent idea to look for ways to broaden the season, but I would be disappointed if the only solution was to cut the daily limit by 33%. There is also the option of reducing the commercial catch quota and increasing the sport catch quota correspondingly. As I'm sure you know, the recreational crab quota only represents 16% of the total catch. That seems surprisingly low considering the value of sport crabbing to the State and its citizens. I would be willing to bet that the economic impact to the State, on a per crab basis, is considerably greater for recreationaly harvested crabs than commercially caught ones. If daily catch changes are required, perhaps a reduction in the limit to 5 each day would be another option.

I would ask that you seriously consider the first option (reallocation of the commercial quota to the recreational quota) when you are deciding how to best manage the recreational crab season. A significant part of our time using our boat with family and friends is dedicated to crabbing in Puget Sound. I hope we can look forward to your support of the extended recreational crab season.

Grandpa, thanks for the update. I sent an email to Ms. Veneroso telling what a bunch of crap this is. Let me know if more is needed.

Personally I think it is a great idea to cut the limit!

I'd also like to see the size limit raised to 6 1/2", the commercials given a smaller share and have it open year round for the recreational guys again... if only it were a perfect world...

flame on

I'm OK with 4 per day. What really chafes me is a 3 month season. I would prefer to crab year-round, and bring home fewer each time out.

6 crabs per person is a lot of crab. I always have at least one other license in the boat, so that's 12 crabs, which is more than enough for my immediate family and some guests. I usually have 3 or 4 licenses in the boat, so 4 per license still lets me bring home 12 or 16 crabs, which is a bunch IMO.

4 Crab that not going to feed me and my family.The price of gas today is $2.13 for regular and $2.33 for super do the math. State wins again.Oh $43.00 for a fishing Lic. And most poeple don't crab at all.Commercial win too

I usually go crabbing with my family and we bring home 6-8 crabs, which is enough for a big meal and some left over. I'm OK with a 4 crab limit, but I sent a letter to Lisa asking her for additional quota. These folks need to know that we're watching.

Thanks for the info, Grandpa.

Cowlitz Kidd, nice post. Do you even understand what you wrote? I sure as heck don't!

I've always thought that the per-person limit was a little high considering how easy it is to get them. 6 per day, that's over 40 crab a week, per person. C'mon, who can eat that many crab in a week?

I'm curious about how many pounds of crab the commercials get in their quota, anybody have that info? I'd like to figure out what the sales tax revenue is on commercial and tribal crab @ $4.99 a pound.

I have no problem with a decrease in bag limit, if it will result in a longer season. Nobody can eat six crabs in a day, eating 4 would be pretty tough too. (The crab limit is very generous even at 4, unlike steamer clams, most people can eat 40 of those in a sitting).

Why even have commericial season in puget sound? It is clear the recreational crabbers can catch all of the non-tribal allocation in PS.

The tribes take half, the sporties should get the other half, based on economic arguements (ie a sports harvest crab brings the state a lot more money than a commercial crab).

Don't worry I know why there is a commercial season, legistative mandate for commerial fisheries, yadayadayada.

"She did say that this is just in the discussion phase and would not affect this season. The 65 35 split of crab between the sport and commercial is not an issue the department is willing to dealt with "right now". Their approach seems to be to wait until the new catch data comes in, since the new cards are out this year and the screw up with the crab no crab option on the licenses until the middle of May, it looks like we could be in for some bag limit changes in the area of Puget Sound where there is no commercial crabbing, Hood Canal and North Sound. "Quoted from a PSA site

Seacat sorry you are rich and can go crab all the time. It's cost money to go crabing do you know what money is. I crab two or three times a year so I like to get 10 to 12 crab.YES I KNOW WHAT I WRITE IT COST MONEY GET OF MY BACK

I like the idea of reducing the catch limit. With my family of four out on the boat up in the San Juans it is easy to catch a limit of 24 crab, and that is way to many for me to eat before they need to given away or frozen. A smaller limit with more time on the water would be much better.

1: We are now being charged and extra $3 to fish for crab in Puget Sound because we needed to get a handle on our catch data. The idea of charging more and then dropping bag limits at the same time should not even be a consideration unless you really want to hurt license sales.

2: We need to hold bag limits in place to help verify that we are actually getting better data because of the $3 fee. If the bag limit drops it would be comparing tow completely different types of season.

3: There is a good amount of optimistic opinion that the $3 fee will result in new data that shows the recreational crab catch significantly lower than what has been reported. We should wait on the new data before any adjustments in bag limits are made.

4: Any discussion on reduction of bag limits should be done in conjunction with a review of the allocation. Reduction in limits could end up being a tool to manage the crab fishery but only as part of an allocation plan that assures much better recreational opportunity.

I agree with Mike G.

The state needs to take a serious look back at how these splits were established and what politics were involved at the time.

Until recently, the sport anglers were too unorganized or apathetic to effectively participate in the decision making. That is no longer the case.

I would like to know by what reasoning the state figured that the lion's share of the non-tribal catch "belongs" to a few commercial crabbers instead of the citizens of the state.

The CRC (catch record card) goes into effect this month in a week or so. The data will not be meaningful until 2005 but will eventually allow the WDFW people to more accurately measure the real sports catch. At roughly 16% of the total catch allocated to us,the sports fishers are second class citizens. Problem is we are financing the fishery much more so than the pitance being paid by commercials and the free ride being taken by the tribes. The tribes do not even contribute tax proceeds to the stae and yet they set their strings of crab pots for months 7 days a week after the rest of the paying citizens are on the beach. The imbalance in shellfishing is mind boggling since the Rafeedie decision gave away 50% of the harvestable stocks. If we are hell bent on allowing the tribes to take over our fisheries in the name of Boldt and Rafeedie atleast we can demand a split with the non tribal commercials. Somewhere along the line we need to stand up and revolt. We can do so with facts and science. The CRC is going to give us some much needed ammo. IN the mean time a reduction in catch is a real slap in the face. The notion that an indivudual can catch more than they can eat is prepostorous in that no one says you have to catch your "limit". No one should assert that we all catch our "limit" either or that we crab 24/7. For those who think they get more than they need I say...don't catch so many. To the majority of crabbers being allowed to harvest a fair share is the name of this game.

I'll tell you what reason.... the almighty $$$... and not dollars to the economy. The only dollars politians are really concerned with are the ones lining their pockets.


Hey! Maybe we should up the limit to 12 crab a day. Just think of all the enforcement $ they would save on the other 361 days crab season is closed.

I agree completely with G2 and others on this post but I have a couple questions. I've read that the sportfishing industry in Washington is an $850M industry. Does anyone know what the economic impact is to this state from the commercial fishing industry? What about the economic impact to this state that results from the tribes fisheries?

I'm in the process of writing to the rep. on this but wanted a little more info.

Thanks.

I will publish the poundage allocations later...gotta go to the paying job now...Just one point though..Closing the season early without the data to support an early closure is ridiculous. First the state has to allocate the resource in a much more equitable way, then prove that the sports fishers get their allocation early...then we can support further measures such as cutting the daily bag limit. Until that day we do not.

The state WDFW commissioners have publicly admitted that even though they are well aware that sports fishing brings in the most money to the state economy by far they cannot and will not consider this when making their decisions. That is why a half dozen commercial non tribal shrimpers get the lions share of the shrimp in Puget Sound and that is why the commercial netters on the Columbia were allowed to catch their fish in the beginning of the run while we are always shut out early, and that is why 84% of the crab inside puget sound go to the commercials. That is why I say the commission system is broken. There is supposed to be a sportsfishing spokesman on the commission but so far we have seen commercial fishing bias from day one. I think it may start to change..As long as Gary Locke is not replaced by someone worse.( that would be a hard one)