During our meeting with the senior Leadership of WDFW on the 26th of Oct, the department's legal representative said that the sport fishing community is responsible for the current situations between the Tribes and WDFW. The situation meaning things like: The ramp at Point no point, the loss of the Skokomish river and having the observers thrown out and kept out of the NOF process since 2013! He explained that the sport fishing community "upset" the tribes by their comments on the various fishing boards, and therefore the Tribes "clam up" and refuse to cooperate. WDFW asks that we STOP upsetting the tribes. The Director says their strategy is to "cooperate and wait" meaning, they will continue to build the relationship in hopes that sometime in the future the tribes will see all the good will and respond.

SO, I apologize for forgetting my place. After all, I AM only a citizen of this state, and it is not my place to ask for fair and transparent fisheries management. I'm sorry if I've hurt the tribal co-managers feelings and hope they will not use the permits as a tool to punish the sport fishing community.