At the Oly meeting Mr. Palsson was specifically asked about the underlying data pertaining to the annual "encounter" figure of 35,000 for the years 2004-2007. Concern was expressed that these were numbers driving the restrictions on sport fishing yet without knowing which species were being encountered or released and the specific species and depth. This information is critical! If the majority of these fish were encountered in shallow water in the western part of the Strait then there would have been little impact.

Mr. Palsson was also asked to have the data updated for years 08/09 and to include projections on what, if any, impact on these numbers would result from the several anticipated rockfish/bottomfish rule changes (i.e. no fish limit; can't fish deeper than 120 feet). Again, if we have already reduced levels to the lowest in recent (as in 40 or more years) the observation is that you can't go less than zero!

I was very surprised that Mr. Palsson was not prepared for these questions nor for the questions regarding seal predation especially since he had been put on notice at the Mill Creek meeting that seals were an issue. He couldn't or wouldn't clarify if the rockfish in seal scat figure (yea, a job I don't like to think about) of 12% represented occurrence in 12% of the scats sampled, 12% of the fish identified in the scats, or 12% of the weight. Their damage control was to say that the seals' rockfish diet was probably made up mostly of Puget Sound Rockfish (the species) which is small and in great numbers. How convenient! Just show me the data! It was also pointed out that the total food consumption cited at para 2.7.7 of 5MM pounds in P.S. should have been more like 28.6 million (calculations shown to his boss after the meeting). It doesn't take much of a percentage to equal a significant number of those species of concern (1% = 286,000# =143,000 fish at 2#).

I am still waiting for answers to the questions.