Albacore tuna are pelagic, highly migratory and subject to extensive commercial fishing around the Pacific. What we recreational fishers harvest in the PNW is a pittance to overall harvest. That said, wastage is never a good thing.

When Oregon went through the process of establishing a 25 fish limit there was some "monkey see, monkey do" here in WA. As a result then Director Phil Anderson hosted a meeting to discuss a possible limit here. Some of the points I took away from that meeting were as follows:

1. PNW recreational fishers fishers take very few albacore compared to all commercial harvest.

2. If the then upcoming stock assessments were to show a decrease in albacore tuna abundance such that harvest needs to be constrained it needs to be focused primarily on the commercial side (given the small % taken by recs).

3. There are relatively few days that tuna are in our waters and of those days many are lost due to weather.

4. Recreational boats and six pack charters are small and self-limiting due to both weight constraints and icing capacity.

5. Boats for hire (six packs and larger salmon type operations) must have a limited entry license to take paid guests fishing to include for albacore.

6. Limitations set forth above effectively preclude large party boats with corresponding icing and bait capacity from entering the PNW fishery. Just not economically feasible.

7. Due to the costs of participating in this fishery (both private rec boats and aboard a charter) fishermen commonly make limited trips and want to maximize harvest when they get into fish.

8. Fear that a "feel good" limit once established would be subject to further such meddling rather than be based upon sound data and scientific assessments.