Jim Georg had a good editorial in this month's issue of The Reel News.

HINDSIGHT IS 20 20

By Jim Goerg
Publishing Editor
THE REEL NEWS

www.thereelnews.com


To WDFW and ODFW:

With the new decade in front of you, you need to look back before
looking forward. In hindsight, the choices and decisions you made in the
past should be clearer for 2020, knowing what happened as a result of those
decisions and obvious broken management of our resources. 20 20 should
provide good vision for year 2020.

Just look at the upside-down doubled-up mismanagement decisions on
Columbia River fisheries. How about the debacle of salmon seasons in Puget
Sound? And then there is the ruinous collapse of recent crabbing seasons.

You know why.

You can't just guestimate fisheries on paper projections when, time after
time, year after year, those guesses go sideways. I question if "science" actually comes into the picture or if it fell completely out of the frame. Shred it for cripes sake!

When predicting and setting fishing seasons in Washington you've
allowed the co-managers to run roughshod over you and dictate who
is going to fish when, where and for what. Maybe their "science" is better
than yours?

And another thing…Where does your salary and funding really come
from? Not the co-managers. Not the commercial fishers nor their lobbyists.
It comes from sports and recreationalists that have their boots in the dirt.

You might want to put your glasses on.

2020 should emphasize the clarity of your past decisions as opposed to
the uncertainty before you made those decisions. If you knew back then what
you know now, wouldn't you rather go back and change your actions? Face it,
there were many, many bad decisions.

Were those decisions worth it?

Hindsight is 20 20. Do something about it. As for me, right now the only
hiney I want in my sight is mismanagement as it walks out the door in 2020.