Don't know if this is the correct place to dig and maybe someone else has experience with State law: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=34.05.325

I do know that Boeing won its protest against the AF tanker award to Airbus because the AF did not follow its own rules. Seems the case here as well.

By the way it is not inherently wrong or bad to have more/bigger specimens in a protected area than adjacent waters open for fishing. Frankly, I would be surprised if that were not the case. What should be of concern is the extent of that disparity and especially when the populations outside are not sustainable whether by fishing, predators, pollution or a combination. Then identify the constraints, rate their relative impacts, and focus on the bigger constraints first.