In my opinion, the WDFW commission is broken beyond repair. With the governor you get guys like Curt Smitch, Gary Locke's salmon guru. The process is so intertwined with bad politics that fish come second. I think we are going to be much more productive if we get involved in the politics through organizations and lobbyists. The RFA has a good shot at getting some good things done in this state if the sports fishing community supports the organization by joining and donating money. The Freedom To Fish Act is spreading across the country in coastal states and is critical to our future as sports fishermen.

All you have to do is examine some of the decisions of the commission to see that it is biased and can be unreasonable and ignorant of the facts. Look at the setting of the recent spot shrimp seasons. The commission allocated a huge percentage of the available shrimp to a handful of commercial boats. They even went so far as to make their move even more lopsided after massive testimony from the sports fishing public. In my opinion they did this to stuff it up our rearends after we questioned their wisdom on the subject. At a hearing to hear testimony a couple of the commercially biased commissioners stood up before even hearing one word from the 100 or so sports fishers in attendance and told us that the benefit to the economy from sports fishing did not count and that they were forced by legislative mandate to provide a "viable" commercial fishing season. What a crock that was! Provide a "viable" commercial season for 4 or 5 commercial shrimp boats in Puget Sound while ignoring the huge injection of cash into the economy by the thousands of sports shrimpers? The legislation they site also mandates that they provide a "quality" sports fishing opportunity. All of their studies, even by their own biologists, should have steered them to a more equitable balance of opportunity but instead they made the season a joke for sports people and did nothing to adhere to science or good sense. After hearing a ton of sensible and fact based testimony they took their preconceived , commercially biased, allocation and made it is even more lopsided in favor of the few commercial shrimpers as if to say: "OK sports people! You don't like the tiny bit you get? Well how do you like this? We'll give you even LESS!" We'll show you crybabies who's boss.

The WDFW employees and also the director do not agree with what the commission does in many cases but all they can do is shake their heads and go along due to the way the system is set up. The idea of the commission was to take unilateral power away from the governor and give power to a "diverse" group of user groups. The problem came when Gary Locke made his appointments and did so in total disregard for the letter and intent of the laws setting up the commission in the first place. Politics, commercial fishing lobbying (CASH) and back scratching won over good science and equal representation.

So don't point your finger squarely at the director or even the staff at WDFW. Get upset with the politics and join the fight to overturn the mess we are in. Keep the pressure on the commission but keep in mind that they don't like to be criticized and will pay the sports fishing community back in their own spiteful way. We still are being punished for the Bern Shanks era and some of the confrontational tactics user groups used against the commission and their commercial fishing allies. The tribes are also out there as the biggest factor in fish management by far. The fantastic fishing still going on in area 4 out of Neah Bay is a direct result of the efforts and clout of the Makah tribe, not the commission or the director.