Just to be clear, our point at Washington Citizen Sportsmen, is not Tribal Nets, or harvest or finger pointing over who is "the most responsible" for our current situation. Our message and our fight has been and continues to be over HOW the management decisions are made.

Clearly, the business as usual method has proven to be a dismal failure. And yes, there needs to be some drastic changes made. However, no real progress can happen as long as decision, agreements and deals are being done void of any honest conversations.

We have singled out the corrupt North of Falcon Process, as it is glaringly wrong! Not who is involved, but rather HOW it is done. It just happens that, according to the leadership of WDFW, it is the Tribes that are preventing transparency, and that is why we point to the tribes to fix this. The truth be told, outside the North of Falcon, the tribes are doing a lot of good things, and as we have always advocated, IF they would come out from behind their wall, (like they did at the Plenary meeting) and fully engage with the recreational community as an equal partner, we (collectively) have the power and numbers to do some truly good things.

The question again is WHY? Given all that is at stake, why are the tribes so opposed to having our fishery management as open and transparent as possible. Why do they say "cooperation" and "trust building" yet do things that cause frustration and dis-trust? Can it be just because they can? Because they are in a position to dictate HOW things are done, so they choose to do things that are contrary to trust building? Clearly, they could open the doors by simply saying so. At least, that's what WDFW Leadership says. So WHY?

The North of Falcon is NOT the only issue of secrets in our fishery management. Hell, there is a culture of secrets within WDFW. The fish mafia routinely cuts deals without any input from the public. It's a mess. We have a Department that is fraught with leadership problems, who have built a culture of corruption, a Commission who is supposed to be in charge, but is neutered by the AG, Governor and to some degree by the Department. Then there is various groups in which you have people with long histories in fisheries who are more concerned about their prestige and position then about solutions. They are "working on stuff" and "making a deal" outside of any oversight by even the Commission, which of course, blind sides everyone. The Skokomish River mess is a prime example.

So, it is secrets in our fisheries that we are fighting against, not nets, or race or harvest. By saying put the fish first, for us it mean's, put all the ego's, personalities and hidden agendas in the trash, and come to the table to do everything possible to protect the fish and enhance the fisheries. Not everyone will get everything they want, those days are long gone. But, nothing is exactly what everyone will get if we continue to manage like we have been.