A lot of good points in this thread. I'd just like to offer a few thoughts/clarifications.

1. Under the current tribes go first system, the tribes are incentivized to throw out glass half full season estimates, and the state would be similarly benefited by offering glass half empty estimates, but in practice, I am told that both sides are now, literally, on the same boats and sharing the same data from test fisheries in most marine areas. I don't think that there is much nonsense in the test fishery results or estimates anymore, and the fact that the tribes go first probably helps them play it straight with the estimates.

I'm not sure that WDFW is aboard tribal vessels when sampling occurs.

2. Legally, the tribes really don't have to offer much cooperation at all with crab management if they don't want to.

Failure to participate could result in concurrent fisheries.


3. If you think it's rough following the tribes' take, imagine being a non-tribal crabber and having to also follow the recs' summer season. It's amazing there are any crab left, but as Larry B notes, there have been. Recs are 2nd. That's better than 3rd.

True, 2nd is better than third BUT by having an extended season (4-5 months) the NT commercials become somewhat of a hybrid; that is, taking crab which have molted into a legal size after the summer rec season and in some cases after the winter season. In that sense they may actually be first and recs third.

4. Overlapping with commercial crabbers (whether tribal or non) sucks. They lay huge lines of pots in the best areas, tend them actively, and generally just don't play nice on the water. At present, the recs have an open season, without competition, in most marine areas during the best/nicest part of the year. Sure, that's only a benefit if there are crab but...

5. The State is still doing pretty well when it's all said and done and the State take and Tribal take are compared. MA-10 was a disappointment, and a surprise, last year and there was an imbalance in take, but no one should think that WDFW ignores that. They don't. (Nor do the tribes when it cuts the other way.) And horse-trading for things like extra days, or demands for use of the most conservative estimates, makes rough justice of that from one season to the next.

So, yeah, South Sound crab is presently totally abysmal, and MA-10 is headed in the wrong direction, but it's not clear that WDFW policies are responsible for the reduction in harvestable crab, and it's certainly not the case that they ignore what's happening. It's their job to pay attention to it, and the guys in the Shellfish Group do. As I've said before, should you doubt me on this, give them a call and have a pleasant conversation. They answer the phone.

Yes, the shellfish folks and especially the crabby bunch at Mill Creek set a very positive example of how WDFW employees should interact with their "customers." Great job guys on what is a tough job!! I expect that the new Shellfish Manager Bob Sizemore will revitalize the Recreational Crab and Shrimp Advisory Group to include having more and regular Group meetings which announced in advance and are open to the public.