Perry, my name is Brad Ridgeway and I'm the President of Renton PSA and the secretary of the State Board of PSA and I'm here to tell you Renton Supports both bills. Futhermore I have collected support votes from 10 chapters so far and 1 choosing not support still waiting for the responce from 4 chapters. I'm curious how 1 equates to "most"?
I saw you email but did not respond due to 1 not knowing anything about you other than you like to post on the internet and 2 having more important matters at hand, and to add to that i'm having outboard issues which I put you right after so here is my statement. See you in Olympia Wednesday

P.S Ron's PSA statement will be coming today, would you like one of us to post it here or would you like it sent to you so you can do that?

Thanks

Brad

Here is the answer for PSA. We are going to sign in support of the bill. I have worked politics for many years and this bill looks great to anyone that looks at it. I had to call the chapters in for a vote and it is not easy with 15 voting chapters. There are chapters still waiting to be heard from. I am going to lay it out as I see it as I have had so many calls and pressure to succomb to this bill. PSA is a ground up organization meaning it does what the chapters want.

I have been working in the political arena for many years and was able to bring in a lobbyist to help with our cause. There are many battles we have fought. PSA as a whole is going to go forward to support SB5844 on Wednesday. We have taken a chapter vote and will go forward with a yes vote. This has not been easy as there are many things at play here. This is something we have not taken lightly. We always want to pick our battles wisely and make sure there are not repercussions down the road that we made the right choice. This bill puts added pressure on several of the remote chapter communities that have differences in how their fisheries are managed. This bill is stated as a recreational priority bill. It says when dealing with our fisheries recreationals get priority.

The reason we had given the neutral stance is because we knew that Representative Blake was not going to hear (HB1660) in the House, it is a huge longshot that PFMC is going to change the ocean fisheries management towards the recreationals. This boils down to going after the ocean trollers. We know that to change any ocean fisheries management, it has to go through PFMC. The ocean is managed federally and not as much the state. PFMC is comprised of 14 voting members and only 1 is from Washington. Most has almost always voted commercial. Oregon would not be on board, but there is one issue where they might. Let's say even if we could get a bigger share of the Ocean Chinook, the Oregon trollers are going to come right in and take those fish away. These fish will be open game for them. So a win would be quickly taken away.

Right now of the Non-tribal fisheries side we have already:
1. Repositioned crab and shrimp for the recreationals in the Puget Sound. We have the lion's share of halibut in Washington state. PSA was the reason this happened as they were the advisors that did the ground work to get it done.
2. Have most of the Chinook and Coho managed for sport in the Puget Sound. Non tribal commercials get the Pink and Chum.
3. Puget Sound Halibut (from Neah Bay in) non tribal is 100% recreational. No commercial fishery.
4. Non tribal ocean halibut fishery-Recs get most of it.
5. We have 73% of the Coho in the ocean and 50% of the Chinook out there. If we could change the ocean troll fleet we would have to get a law mandated in Oregon to stay off of these fish. Not likely as PFMC is mainly managed for commercial fishing.
6. Our seasons for Puget Sound Rockfish are closed. We have a managed Lingcod fishery.
7. Columbia River is already trying to be managed for the sports and has issues between Washington and Oregon and non stop fighting.

The rest of the ocean fishery is a non issue. We can fish for and catch about as much tuna, rockfish,and lingcod as possible except going up against the impacts caused by species of concern, i.e, Canary and Yelloweye Rockfish. These are the drivers that shorten our opportunity.

We have not sat idly by as some may think. We have been working on this through many calls to make sure we are doing the right thing. There are always reactions for every action so we want to be careful.

Do we want to send our PSA NOF representatives into the North of Falcon process making it tough to deal with the other user groups that are comprised of Tribes, Non tribal commercials, and recreationals on the chance that this bill might not make it? I know there is a lot of pressure on Brian Blake to pass HB1660 but reality is that he lives in a commercial fishing town with commercial family members.

Do we want to make the North of Falcon planning process meeting tough on our reps that have to sit in a room with all parties that partake in splitting up the salmon on the west coast, from Point Falcon California to the Canadian Border.

They have to divide up all of the salmon between the user groups and come to an agreement on who gets what salmon. Our NOF representatives work very hard with all entities looking forward to a positive outcome for us.

We have some remote chapters that this affects differently and think we should be respectful of their situations.

We had to cast a chapter vote due to outside pressure trying to paint us as "for" or "against." So we will be going forward with the yes. As of right now the votes that have come in are high enough to have the state board represent a yes vote on these two bills. The accusations that have come to me are ludicrous and unacceptable.

From I went behind our organizations backs to legislators to cut their throats to being a traitor. With all of the fishing issues that PSA has rolled up its sleeves and helped to gain for the recreational, that was a huge slap in the face.

There are a lot of positive aspects in this bill and legislators have stuck their neck out for this bill to happen for recreational fishing. PSA signing on will help this bill move forward.

If it wasn't for the strength of PSA, this would never be an issue. We are focusing our energies on the Puget Sound Rockfish ESA listing. This is going to make this bill issue seem like peanuts as there is intent from NOAA to shut down parts of the Puget Sound to fishing. This would be a federal permanent closure on our fishing grounds. PSA is the only fishing organization that is at the table trying to guide this in our favor to stop these closures. The rest are NGOs that are paid to be there and many want closures. In my opinion some are there to fund their organization through crisis funding. No crisis no funding. Remember that we are a 100% volunteer organization with no salaries.

I really hope this helps shed light on what we see that is happening. If you would like to speak or comment on the bill please do. We are not trying to tell you how to vote. We want our perspective to be known. I have called about everyone in the world that this would affect to make sure we are doing the right thing. This takes time. We want to make sure that this is not ready, shoot, aim.

The scheduled public hearing is on Feb 18, this Wednesday, at 1:30 PM in Olympia. This is in the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Parks. This is in the John Cherberg Building, 304 15th Ave SW, Olympia, bottom floor. Please come and support your position. If you choose to not show up and be heard, don't complain.
Thank you and see you in Olympia.
Sincerely,
Ron Garner
PSA State President

Thanks, Ron

Thank you Ron,

And thank you for all the hard work and long hours spent making sport fishing a priority.

These are hot topics, and frankly, there is a lot of politics and money involved. Emotions run high on both sides, but that is no excuse to slander or call into question anyone's character.

I'm sure the majority of sportsmen know how difficult it is to work on these issues, and applaud you and the other PSA board members for your work.

Brad,
I can understand how my emails requesting information on where the varies chapters stood might of been misunderstood. It was not my intent to put anyone on the spot, but rather to gain some insight as we (the sporting community) had not heard anything official from PSA. Perhaps the "Less than supportive" comments were due to a misunderstanding of intent. No matter, in any case, PSA has stated fully supporting the measure and THAT is what matters!

With Mr. Garners released statement, the momentum has increased exponentially.

By the way, Brad. I'm an old SOB and posting on the internet is not one of my favorite things. But having served 22 years in the armed forces, I'm willing to stand up for what I believe in. And if that means I have to spend 40 minutes trying to type something on the internet then I'm willing to do that.

P.S. Don't bother posting the statement. Someone already did!

I understand Perry, We have been working hard over the last few days and both Ron and I have been bombarded from all sides and I’m a bit defensive, sleep deprived and pissy. It was tough to see people criticizing by mail, phone, internet and airways of one of the, if not the hardest working person the fishermen in this State have.

Thank you for your service.

Brad

Straight from the author of HB 1660...

The biggest thing YOU can do right now if it's even remotely possible is to show up at the hearing on the Senate companion bill on Wednesday.



This is generally the kind of thing I jump at in a heartbeat, but unfortunately I personally will NOT be able to attend the hearing to testify.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

The same diehards show up at these meetings to do the heavy lifting. Here's YOUR chance to take a bit of the burden off their shoulders. If at all possible please attend and sign in SUPPORTING the bill. Better yet take a few minutes to jot down some notes and sign up to TESTIFY in support of the bill.

We all know Blake has no intention of hearing the original HB 1660 in committee. If this thing passes the Senate with bipartisan support, it will be much more difficult politically for Blake to ignore when it comes back to the House the second time around.

The scheduled public hearing is on Feb 18, this Wednesday, at 1:30 PM in Olympia. This is in the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Parks. This is in the John Cherberg Building, 304 15th Ave SW, Olympia

I'm heading down from the McChord AFB area. I have room for two more if anyone needs a ride. Just let me know with enough lead time so we can plan a meet up location.

Please, if anyone else is going, offer a ride to others that may want to attend but have no ride. If ever, we need to have a really, really good turn out.

There will be other bills having a public hearing by Chair Pearson at the 1:30pm time slot along with SB 5844.

Killing 2 birds with one stone, I will sign in opposed to SB 5881 regarding Sen. Chase’s bill concerning the composition of the F&W commission.

The other bills I am undecided on at this moment but maybe you have preferences.

The commercial industry will be represented as usual and we need a good showing of the recreational industry being represented as well, for SB 5844, to balance or hopefully dominate the hearing. If you fish for salmonids, make or sell tackle, manufacture boats,and are part of the 800,000 fish license holders, etc. for recreation purposes, you are part of the recreational industry.

If you have a chance to be there, then come to Olympia and sign on in or sign in to testify.

I just had a doctor's appointment rescheduled from Thursday to 12:30pm tomorrow, so there's no way I can make it down there now...so thank you to those who can make it.

I've sent in comments, and I've contacted my legislators to let them know where I stand on it.

Fish on...

Todd

In these discussion I often see references to the commercial fishery or the commercial fishery industry. In reality what is really under discussion is the non-treaty SALMON commercial fishery.

The commercial fishery industry is a large and diverse business that is a significant contributor to the State's economy. The non-treaty commercial salmon fishery is but a tiny portion of that overall commercial industry. While some will likely try to confuse the issue by talking about the value of that commercial industry those in the recreational community would be will served in the arguments by being specific about the issue and precise in our terms.

In addition it would probably be wise to focus the prioritization of Chinook and coho for the recreational fishery. In marine waters the chums and San Juan Island sockeye typically account for approximately 2/3 of the economic value of the NT commercial salmon landings.

It has been a long uphill fight to get to this point in this debate and the reality is it will likely drag beyond this legislative session. Success over the long term may well hinge on the recreational community's ability over the long haul to educate the legislators by being both concise and precise in our arguments.

Some of my thoughts.

Curt

Thank you Curt for your thoughts.


I have two numbers written down. One number represents my guess on how many commercial fishers show up and the other number represents how many recreational fishers show up.

Of the 800,000 recreational fishers, experience shows that the only one you can count on to show up is yourself and we are behind in the turn out column.

If there is only one thing that you do to represent yourself and your sport this year, hopefully this is the occasion.

If anyone wants to listen in TVW will have the hearing videotaped.

http://www.tvw.org/index.php?option=com_tvwschedule#date=2015-02-18&time=13:00

SB5844 sits right in the middle of the agenda ( 5th of 11 bills) to be heard over the course of about 2 hours starting at 1:30PM

Of the numbers I had written down, I was close on the commercial turnout but the sport anglers turn out number was crushed and hit absolutely out of the park.

Pro-- 23 signed in to testify + 41 signed in =64 in attendance “pro”
Con--19 signed in to testify + 15 signed in =34 in attendance “con”

Almost double was for the bill.

The powers to be are trying to show a landscape of an equal standoff of support from both the sport angler and commercial industries yesterday, which simply was not the case.

It was a great feeling of not being surrounded and out spoken by the commercials like in other venues I have attended in the past.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I just feel great today.

Enough of that, now we need the bill to continue to move.

You can track the bill progress through the link below. There is also a box you can check and send your comments on the bill to your local legislator(s).

You can also do the same for HB 1660. Just type in 1660 in the bill number box.

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=5844&year=2015