WDFW NEWS RELEASE
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091
http://wdfw.wa.gov/
July 15, 2010
Contact: Rich Childers, (360) 586-1498 ext. 400 or
Steve Burton, (425) 775-1311
Public meetings scheduled to discuss
Puget Sound crab management
OLYMPIA - The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has scheduled four public meetings this month to discuss potential changes to Dungeness crab fisheries in Puget Sound.
The meetings, which will run from 6-8 p.m., are scheduled for:
• July 21 - Edmonds Senior Center (in the Ballroom), 220 Railroad Ave., in Edmonds.
• July 22 - Mason County PUD No. 3 (in the auditorium), 307 West Cota St., in Shelton.
• July 26 - Skagit County PUD (in the Aqua Room), 1415 Freeway Dr., in Mount Vernon.
• July 27 - Point Hudson Marina (in the Marina Room), 375 Hudson St., in Port Townsend.
The public meetings are part of the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission’s review of its existing management policy for Puget Sound Dungeness crab.
During the meetings, WDFW staff will explain current management objectives of recreational and commercial crab fisheries in Puget Sound along with three potential alternatives for recreational fishing seasons beginning in 2011.
The three potential alternatives are available on the department’s website at http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/meetings/2010/06/ps_dungeness_alternatives.pdf .
In June, the commission selected the three alternatives for further review after receiving input from recreational crabbers and WDFW’s commercial and recreational crab fishery advisory groups.
"These four upcoming meetings are a great opportunity for people to provide input on the potential changes to the Puget Sound crabbing seasons currently being considered by the commission," said Rich Childers, shellfish policy lead for the department.
In addition to the public meetings, the commission - a nine-member citizen panel that sets policy for WDFW - is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the three alternatives during its August 6-7 meeting in Olympia.

Option A for 2011, and hopefully back to the good old days of traditional crabbing in the spring in future years.

This was off the WDFW website:

Perhaps the most popular site for this type of crabbing is Port Gardner off the Everett jetty where >200 crabbers have been counted in boats during a single low tide late in May.

http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/shelfish/crabreg/crabbio.htm#methods

Yo AuntyM, is Junior going to be present at any of these meetings???? What happened to all of the initial verbage/wording regarding "Who's First In Line For The Poundage"??? It seems to have quietly disappeared. How come No Further Verbage/Wording using the $3 CRC for buying out those worthless and not used commercial crabbing licenses???? I am starting to SMELL A COMMERCIAL RAT AGAIN. Or just maybe it is STILL all about ALLOCATION. And again, I'll offer up the unedited MGT America Performance Audit I have in my hot little hands that seems to have "Some Inconsistencies" with the final Senior Sonntag POS Performance Audit.

John Q

PS Crab Policy C-3609 Draft 7/16/2010

http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/policies/draft_c-3609_16jul2010.pdf

What are the times of these public meetings? Is there a press release to follow?

Is there an online option for shift workers?

The "best" of the three current options provides for growth in recreational crabbing without having to come back and fight over percentage of the State's share. That is the good news.

The bad news is that the "best" option falls short of providing sport crabbers with enough of the resource - especially as it represents days per week to crab. The WDFW's modeling puts Option A at 45% of the State's share of P.S. crab. That means non-tribal commercial harvesters will still take 55% in the short run. How did this occur?

First, the original six options did not provide enough permutations of daily catch limits and days per week during the summer season. Next, LE apparently pushed for a "one size fits all" mentality for seasons/daily catch limits in all marine areas. Due to the unequal distribution of crab within P.S. this approach effectively limits seasons and daily catch limits to those which would not cause the State's harvest to exceed its 50% (the other 50 % going to the tribes) in any one marine area. While not exceeding the State's share is critical there are other potential combinations that would achieve that goal. As is, this is essentially managing via the weakest link.

Now that there is a computerized harvest model it should be relatively easy for WDFW to run other permutations. I suggest those marine areas of concern (MA 10-13) have a four crab a day limit while others have a six crab daily limit and then see how many days per week those catch limits will support. Then compare that to results of another run using 5 crab a day for those higher abundance areas (North Sound).

My guess is that we could have a 7 day a week season and be somewhere between 50% and 57% of the total State share. I don't think that is an unreasonable place to start discussions given that the non-tribal commercials have had 67% since, what, 1985?

Way to go LarryB!!!!!! Keep pushing Please!!!!

Sport fishers want to much?

Uh Oh, am I in trouble?

That would be me

It seems like it is easy to forget all the people on the Kitsap Penn when it comes to these meetings. Our choice is 40 miles or more to Shelton or cross the sound to Lynwood. I'm sure a lot of our crabbers over here would like to particapate in these meetings.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhem, should I start practising the "I Told Yah So's" & "It's STILL all about ALLOCATION POUNDAGE"???????

It appears that Region 1,2,3, is going to be managed as a commercial bias and 4,5,6 is managed for rec use. If true, it is unacceptable.

The San Juans already don't have crab seasons available for sports for July 4th holiday and I wouldn't want to see that happen to Region 2 which would be area 8-1 and 8-2.

I just got word that their is 440,000 sport crab $3.00 endorsements for 2010, quite a jump from last year.

Guess where some of that money is going?

And all the meetings in the world will not help the sport crabbing when the Indians (Tulalip's and I think others) have chosen to not honor the commercial free areas. They are fishing anywhere they want after agreeing to not hitting some spots and allow the sport people to fish without commercial pots there.

WDFW staff is inquiring about commercial crab license buy back. Over the phone he was talking about the possibility to use some endorsement and penalty fees for this.

At the meeting last night WDFW staff wanted our take on buy back. Majority was for it as long as a percentage of take was assigned to each license and then taken away from commercial allotment.

My understanding is that they couldn't tie an allocation amount to a commercial license in option A and B since sport crabbers could conceivably take a share any where up to all of state allocation of sport and commercial leaving a variable.

Option C on the other hand would have a set harvest target for sports that would leave the commercials a set harvest target sort of.
I see your point though that if like Region 2 goes over allocation that would be deducted from commercial allocation in that region leaving a variable there also.

That would be interesting how they would answer your question.

This Shelton meeting tonight promise's to be fun and very interesting and I would sure like to be there but have Kitsap CCA meeting tonight. Sure hope someone gives a blow by blow report on this one.

Allocation Allocation Allocation Allocation Allocation Allocation Allocation Allocation Allocation Allocation Allocation Allocation Allocation Allocation Allocation Allocation Allocation Allocation Allocation Allocation Allocation Allocation Allocation Allocation Allocation


Neener neener neener

Did/will anyone ask those WDFW 's about the AFTER THE FACT FINANCIAL AUDIT Hanky Panky and will the dumbass that passes for the State Auditor here in Washingtoons going to audit the financials for 2004 - 2005. That way WDFW will not be able to HIDE their shannigans. What WDFW did with all the money should send some MANAGERS to jail.

AM,
Thanks for your thoughts on these matters.

I agree that as far as Option A and Option B goes, that both are equal to me on the way I crab fish. Depending on what I catch the first day I go out determines, if I need to go out a second time in the same week, and also determines how many weeks I'm going to skip dropping the crab gear. I don't get a winter crab card and October probably wouldn't entice me unless there is some real summer like days that could and do occur some years.

My impression was that they were definitely looking for something to use at a later date when asking about buy back possibility.