I also have the news release that the department had on their web site in hand. It doesn't state when the regulation takes effect. It does state that the new boat limit rule was "adopted".

I have been in a couple of meetings with WDFW where this was discussed. It seems that it is an enforcement issue. Many sports fishermen on individual boats continue to troll gear after they have caught their blackmouth/king. In many instances this could be justified because the limit was two fish of which one could be a king. This meant that you could continue to fish for silvers. Most sportsfishermen that I know would pull their rods once they fulfilled their daily limit of one king and one silver or two silvers.

The biggest offenders of the original ordinance have been the Charter Boat fleet. The charters typically encouraged all fishers to continue fishing until the boat limit had been attained. According to WDFW, this was an enforcement nightmare. (How I will never understand! Has anyone ever been on or seen a charter get boarded by WDFW?) They adopted the rule to make a commonplace deviation from the regulations legal.

Another regulation change that has been adopted is a change to the possession limit. Sportsfishers (areas 1-6) can now only posess "in fresh form", on board their vessel, one days legal catch limit of a sportsfish species for each legal angler. I have been told that fish must be processed to not be considered fresh. (canned, smoked, frozen)