The tribes do have thier catch limits adjusted just like everyone else. The council many times does not regulate gear types of the tribe, but they can and for example: in 2002 tribal bottom trawl regulations stated "Restricted to Council-approved gear." When they post the 2003 regulations online you can view it at www.pcouncil.org.

This has no impact on Puget Sound.

The press release is a little misleading because it leads you to believe that the yelloweye limit is a reduction to 22 mt. In reallity the yelloweye limit is actually a increase from 13 mt last year because they incorporated some Washington State data into the biological assessment. Of 22 metric tons, 3.5 mt is allocated to the Washington recreational fisheries, up from 3mt last year. That is certainly not enough to allow retention of yelloweye and if we are not carefull we risk loosing the coastal halibut season due to recreational by-catch. But it looks like we will stay under 3 metric tons of by-catch in 2002 so I expect that with a little effort we can continue to keep by-catch at low levels next year.