I am all in favor of doing whatever we need to do to protect our rockfish. In fact, I beleive that, as usual, we did too little too lete. But what galls me are reports like the one yesterday telling us the commercials are killing literally tons of rockfsih and wasting the majority of what they catch. Those wasteful practices need to stop!

Reason for action: On March 1, new federal rules for bottomfish became effective in coastal waters. WDFW has adopted identical rules that become effective May 1. The change is needed now to minimize differences between federal and state rules, to meet the conservation goals of the new rules and provide for additional fishing opportunity for lingcod in March



Other information:

1. Close bottomfish fishing in yelloweye rockfish protection zone. It is unlawful to fish for bottomfish in the area enclosed by the following coordinates:

48°18'00" N latitude; 125°18'00" W longitude; then east to 48°18'00" N latitude; 124°59'00" W longitude; then south to 48°11'00" N latitude; 124°59'00" W longitude; then west to 48°11'00" N latitude; 125°11'00" W longitude; then south to 48°04'00" N latitude; 125°11'00" W longitude; then east to 48°04'00" N latitude; 124°59'00" W longitude; then south to 48°00'00" N latitude; 124°59'00" W longitude; then west to 48°00'00" N latitude; 125°18'00" W longitude; then north to 1st coordinate.

1. Daily bag limit for rockfish in Areas 1-4. The daily bag limit for rockfish is 10, of which no more than one can be canary rockfish. No yelloweye may be retained.
2. Aggregate bag limit for bottomfish in Areas 1-4. The aggregate bag of bottomfish is 15 bottomfish of all species combined, including sublimits of no more than 10 rockfish (no more than one canary and no yelloweye) and no more than two lingcod.
3. Lingcod seasons. The season for lingcod in Areas 1-3 opens March 16. The season opens in Area 4 April 16, as has been the case in recent years.