I don't recall any discussion about no unattended pots which, by the way, would be absolutely impossible to enforce. There has been some past discussion about no overnight soaks which I believe had as its rationale the desire by LE to be able to observe activity by the owners of the pots. Lots of negative feedback to include folks traveling by boat who anchor up at night and wanted to be able to set pots overnight. Ended up with being able to soak overnight but not work pots during darkness (read the regs for the specific language).

To use the unlawful activities by third parties as an excuse to ban overnight soaks would garner a great deal of negative reaction - and rightly so!!!

As for fish tickets it is my understanding that any sale to a licensed buyer is supposed to result in a fish ticket submitted by the fisherman as well as the buyer. The buyer's fish ticket goes to WDFW but where the seller is tribal I am not sure if it goes to WDFW or the specific tribe or both. In any case this is where the most recent commercial scale violation (tens of thousands of pounds) avoided detection in that neither the seller (Tulalip) nor the commmercial fish buyer generated the required fish tickets.

That scheme was uncovered by WDFW LE backtracking paperwork from the retail level which is very manpower intensive which leads us to the issue of how little money from commercial harvest goes back to WDFW and especially compared to what has been and, more importantly, will be generated next year by the recreational community.

Any fish buyer purchasing crab commercially would reasonably know whether his sources are currently able to fish (crab) legally. What that buyer would not know is whether the crabber is simply fishing illegally or is stealing the crab from someone else. In any case the fish ticket would reflect the name of the fisherman delivering the catch anb hopefully tribal affiliation. Whether that buyer is also required to send a copy to the tribe is another question; seems logical and would help close the loopholes.

IF YOU ARE READING THIS HAVE YOU SENT IN YOUR CRC OR ACCOMPLISHED YOUR ON LINE RECREATIONAL SUMMER CATCH REPORT?????