Before the population explosion around here which is one accuracy noted by pnw, no one even bothered to count the crab catches and we crabbed all year long. We could be in a down cycle in terms of overall populations too. With that said, that begs the question of accuracy of the tribal reporting. We now address the imbalance of harvest because of the closures that limit sports access to the crabs. Sports crabbers (over 100,000 of us) must share the non-tribal piece of the pie with some of the commercial license holders (about 240). The tribes are supposed to get half of the total available for harvest. If their reporting was as above board as pnw (Stands With A Crab) would have us believe and we could trust the numbers then we might stand alone with a problem which is the sports count..The method of counting the sports catch is seriously flawed and is in the process of being fixed. This whole debate centers around the notion that the tribes are cheating. I think they are and PNW swears they are as honest as the other commercials. He swears that they sell their crab to the same buyers and report all their catch accurately within 24 hours. I say he is wrong. The Skoks in particular in the canal are notorious for inaccurate reporting. The problem is that no one wants to publicly take on the tribes as there is still too much sympathy for them and the politicians need their gambling money. And, as you have seen here, any complaint about or criticism of the tribes brings the immediate charge of hate and racism. Most of the media won't take that risk so they won't print anything that could be construed as against the tribes. The Tacoma News Tribune does print great stuff but I bet they get branded by guys like pnw as racist.

Just imagine how things would be if this state had a single entity to police all sides and the tribes did not hide behind the sovereign nation shield. What would it be like if the tribes would pay for catching geoduck like everyone else is forced to. Imagine if they did not higrade their catches. Imagine if they paid taxes for all the natural resources they harvest.

We need to enforce Boldt and Rafeedie and hold the tribes accountable. You have seen what power their untaxed gambling money has in our government and if nothing is done to hold them accountable we may have to stow all our fishing gear and toss our crab and shrimp pots. Guys like PNW mix facts with fiction in their attempt to sanitize the tribes. In my book it will take alot of actions to prove to me that the tribes are part of the solution and not the bulk of the problem.