Come on guys. We are just beginning to show out srtrength. Let's keep it up. How about someone running this over to the other boards too?

I have been talking to a newspaper reporter who seem interested in our story.

My letter.

Mr. Johnson. I must take exception to the report last night about recreational crabbing. Several important aspects of that report are erroneous. I suspect you simply reported what the WDFW told you, but the truth is not as they seem to believe.

The truth is recreational crabbers have had their season cut dramatically. Last year our seasons were less than 1/2 of previous years. For the department to state that we have taken more than our share of crabs is complete nonsense.

Beginning in May of 2004, recreational crabbers began completing catch record cards that will, eventually, provide hard date on the actual sport catch. However, at this time there is no way to accurately estimate the sport catch. Because the license required to take crabs is also used by those who dig clams and pick oysters, there is no way to know what percentage of license holders went crabbing, nor is there any way to estimate their success. (Last year we had several razor clam digs that had huge participation. Every one of those diggers had a shellfish license, but many never tried crabbing.)

I do know from many anecdotal reports that most recrational crabbers gave up early in the season, as there were no crabs to be found. Why? Because the commercial season was open well before the sport season. By the time we were allowed on the water, the crabs were long gone. It makes no sense to dramatically cut the sport catch with absolutely no solid data on our catch rates.

Please take the time to investigate this issue thoroughly, and then report the facts. Your viewers deserve no less.

Cordially,

Dave Vedder