Great Idea Aunty.

If someone will volunteer to get me the facts on who is taking their money, I will do my dammedest to get that info published. I do not care a bit if they are R or D. I will publish what I learn.

You see, this is what I am talking about. People are operating on speculation and the fear that sportsfishers are not getting a fair shake. Notice that I said speculation here... the truth as to whether the sportfishers are getting a fair shake lies with the beholder does it not?

Of course tribal pots are required to have rot cord, just like sport fishing pots? Of course tribal pots are required to have escape rings. Do all sport crabbers and non-Indian crabbers and Indian crabbers follow the requirements? Of course not. We've already seen evidence of infractions throughout the fishery and on this site.

Some think that I am making a right or wrong argument here. I am not. Nor do I think I am 100% in the right in my beliefs. But what makes the more pointed views on this site right instead of wrong? Nothing. Speculation, personal opinion and the fear that someone is getting something that others are not. This leads to a frenzy of misguided deads (ala theft from a commercial pot, regardless of ownership).

Lets take for example this campaign strategy of the sport crabbers being allocated only 17% of the harvestable resource. You may have heard of the popular book, "How to Lie with Statistics" (or something like that). This is a perfect example. The sport fishery is NOT allocated 17% of the resource. It does not work this way so why describe it this way? Sure, it exagerates the sport fishers claims but it is a diversion. The allocation of the harvestable crab is 50/50. That is the official division. The Tribes make their decisions about their 50% and the State makes their decisions about their 50%. Within the State's 50% there is no "allocation" as I understand it, but some regional catch guidelelines depending upon the presence of non-Inidan commericla fisheries, etc. If you are upset about the way WDFW divides the State's 50% among the non-Inidna user groups then your argument is with WDFW, not the commercial fishery, not the Tribes, not anyone else. Those decisions are made within the WDFW policy group (many know who they are) and they have at least two advisory groups they use as sounding boards. How well does it work? Many of you have first hand knowledge... I can only speculate.

Grandpa does a great job of picking an example that highlights his personal views with the sub-region 8-2 crab fishery. However, if he wanted to make his point in an OBJECTIVE manner, he might have done a little investigating and also discovered what areas are open to us sporties first... with the commercials coming in afterwards. Does not exist, you say? It does exist, its just that nobody thought that example would suit their argument so it is not spoken of here.

I am the first to admit that I do not fall in with the crowd on this site. I do not share the popular opinion. But it seems that many in this crowd simply do not want to hear the other side. And we all know there is always another side, right? Why assume that I think I am right and you are wrong? I am not saying that at all. I am simply offering another view, from a different perspective.

Don't forget that the measly 17% +- that sportsmen get applies only to Washington's INLAND waters. Most of the crab harvested in this State come from the ocean, where recreational crabbers get 0%.

I have always wondered how, when the crab "pie" was originally divided up, that the legislators decided that most of the crab "belong" to commercial crabbers, and not the citizens of the State. Why don't commercials get to take most of the deer or most of the ducks, etc?

(actually I know how it happened, but that's another story)

SQ: I wish you had not asked that question. You may get some tribal members thinking. Maybe next year we will see adds for Muckleshoot naturally fresh blacktail deer. "We don't shoot them until you order them , roadkill at reduced prices. Get them now at Larry markets"

lets not give them any ideas, they would probably start calculating their profits now....

PNW..there you go again...The tribes have their own government and they don't pay taxes to support ours . They certainly use the benefits of our gvernment but hide behind theirs to shield them from scrutiny and accountability. I don't like antecdoatal evidence like my "examples" you chose to try to pick apart. The facts show that the tribes do most of their crabbing starting in October or so until the sports season starts in mid summer and then they keep right on crabbing in the summer. My example in 8-2 was only to show that the tribes have figured out how to clean out a popular recreational area prior to the sports pots being "allowed" to go in. WDFW will freely admit that they cannot and do not control when the tribes crab. Yoou try to paint a picture of the tribes following the same rules fair and square that all the rest of the population follows but that is a transparent falsehood and you should know that.

We thought that we had a go along solution awhile ago with sports only zones. Of course, it did not take long for the tribes to thumb their noses at those if they felt there were crab they were not getting. The tribes are not getting the easy pickins they have enjoyed since the mid 80s so they are making their own rules as they go along like the practice of going into a recreational zone and taking all the crabs to be kept alive and reseeding into the tribal areas. There are eye witnesses to this.

Recreational crabbing has exploded as our population grows and tribal effort has exploded as well as if to scramble to compete and get as many crab as humanly possible before the competition is allowed in. They do it with gambling and they do it with fisheries. They are going to attempt to do it in the legislature with all their gambling money. We must find a way to stop them in my opnion or the natural resources of this state will not belong to all the citizens but will be hijacked by the "super citizens" called the tribes. It's time to wake up and get busy. The general public has no idea how lopsided things are.

Actually the reality is the Tribes have already won - Sportspeople were not able to fight effectively.

NOTE - we just had an election, and the Tribes easily won their right to have a monopoly on gambling. The voters like the Tribes and will continue to vote for them. I don't see it likely that any of the allocation of resource issues will be resolved in favor of sportsman.

However, we should be thankful the Tribes have not gone to court to get their land back. At some point they will, and Puget Sound will probably have to pay back rent for property you think you have clear title to and think you "own".

As far as salmon and crab, the days of sportspeople getting a share are gone...forever I fear. The crabbing exploded mainly because the state took away - at the tribes request- most of the salmon fishing seasons and so what's left? Crab and shirmp. And both are quickly becoming unavailable to sportspeople because of vastly reduced seasons.

I don't agree with what has happened but finally have accepted the fact that I can do nothing about it other than try to vote out the incumbants.

PNW, your view is so transparent that we should all be insulted by your obvious bias towards the tribes. It is propogandists such as yourself that do the rest of the sports fishing and recreational community an injustice.
Go somewhere else and try to sell your snake oil everything is equal, stance. It is the people that have taken the lies and scare tactics that got the gambling initiative defeated. We can NEVER let that happen again, next time the sportsmen and women of washington will be ready.
You are certainly out of touch here!