I got to agree. MSY is a major part of what is troubling us all. Bob R

a couple of things:

1. inflation is a thing and its hilarious that people don't understand that it MIGHT cost more money in 2019 than it did in 1970 to raise fish, maintain hatcheries that were made around that time and pay staff living wages. even as it stands a fishing license is a great deal I spent $70 bucks and have caught over 50lbs of salmon and steelhead. the bulk of which is chinook which retails for $40-60 a pound- I've got $1000 dollars of chinook in my fridge. i would gladly pay double or triple price as it stands.

2. hatchery staff accidentally killing fish is unfortunate but these things are old and mistakes happen. how much taxpayer money would it take to do a "fact finding mission" to review and terminate the evil WDFW workers? oh I guess we dont want to use taxpayer money to improve the hatcheries because... no taxes!

3. Ford got a taxpayer funded 9 BILLION dollar line of credit because it was barely afloat after becoming less and less competitive in the 2000s to foreign manufacturers who made better products. who was held accountable there?

WDFW has problems and most of them are with tenured upper level management. I think its a terrible idea to enact the kind of "accountability" you're suggesting.

By the voting, although relatively a small sample I grant it, it looks like a majority of constituents want a Saturday Commission meeting. Should we ask our new Chair of the Commission to start Saturday sessions? It would allow us more participation. Maybe they could include more public comment time?

Or is this all just pissing up a rope? What is your opinion?

As the Commissioners are compensated at the rate of $100.00 per day plus travel expenses, it may be to their liking to meet primarily on Saturdays, so as not to conflict or interfere with their weekday jobs or responsibilities...

Yes.

My experience with the Commission meetings and a review of their webpage (https://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/meetings/2018/) for 2018 meetings confirms that their regular monthly sit-down meetings are at a minimum two consecutive days; Friday and Saturday. Friday is always a full agenda and Saturday is generally a half day.

Are you suggesting that they somehow shove all of Friday's agenda items into one Saturday?

Keep in mind that these are volunteers.

I reiterate my prior suggestion that there be two opportunities for general public input on Saturday; one first thing in the morning and a second after their scheduled agenda is completed.

I agree that the only way to fix this is denying the department a large amount of its budget. I don't agree that writing the Legislature and asking them to pull general funding is a worthwhile course of action. No Legislature is going to vote to reduce budgets based on demands of one stakeholder group when the money is legally earmarked to benefit three stakeholder groups. Unless we can somehow convince the Tribes and the NT commercials to join us in that request (not likely), it's a non-starter.

What we can and must do is stop buying licenses. That revenue, whatever percent of WDFW's budget it amounts to, represents 100% of our ability to shake up the status quo. If we ever exercised that potential, we'd see a major turnaround, very quickly, as soon as the other stakeholders found out production was being slashed due to the loss of sport revenues.

Unfortunately, not buying licenses requires us to stop fishing, so it's more than a little self-defeating, at least in the short term. It frustrates me to no end that WDFW's got us over the barrel, but until we prove sufficient resolve to make that sacrifice, over the barrel is where we'll stay, and circling the drain is what our opportunity to fish will continue doing.

Larry, I understand your point. I totally agree that it would be near impossible to put everything into a Saturday meeting. I agree that Saturday can be used for re-cap and lots of public comment. Maybe, instead of 3 minutes, give 5? I realize that Commissioners are volunteers, but they are also OUR pathway to WDFW and OUR voice! I'm frustrated with the way things are going, like the gill nets back in the Big C and the Skokomish crap, not to mention Point no point and so many others.

There has got to be a way to use the HUGE numbers of Sportfishermen other than the keywords on the fishing boards. We have been marginalized and relegated as non-important in our fisheries management. So many separate voices that have been so easily drowned out and turned at each other. I think the Commission and WDFW fear what an organized and focused Sports community could accomplish, if only...

I'm still scratching my head over the CR gillnet issue and specifically how what they have done is supported by the science.

As to the Skokomish I will opine that "negotiating" with the tribe has been and will continue to be futile as it tacitly provides them the upper hand. Obfuscate and win by default. The State (AG?) owes WDFW and the Commission an opinion of the merits of the Dept. of Interior's/Bureau of Indian Affairs (DOI) opinion as to the boundary. If the State's opinion is in conflict with DOI then open up the river and let the Feds take action.

As to PNP the process is ongoing with the USACE having acknowledged their tardiness in rendering a decision on the WDFW permit application.

It has become apparent to me that citizens interested in a particular issue need to become regular fixtures at the Commission meetings - three minutes is plenty of time to ask what progress has been made since the last inquiry. Tiresome? Absolutely! Frustrating? Absolutely! Effective? Better than the alternative where the issue slides off into oblivion.

Larry posted,

"It has become apparent to me that citizens interested in a particular issue need to become regular fixtures at the Commission meetings - three minutes is plenty of time to ask what progress has been made since the last inquiry. Tiresome? Absolutely! Frustrating? Absolutely! Effective? Better than the alternative where the issue slides off into oblivion."

and I'm repeating it because it is the one thing I have seen work. Occupy Skagit did not make headway with the Department until the grassroots group appeared at Commission meetings 3 times over 2 years. The first time we introduced ourselves, told them what we wanted and why it is the right thing. Second time we repeated what we wanted and why it is the right thing. Third time we repeated again and told the Commission that, although they told us we were going about this in the right way, we told them that the Department still had done nothing and had no plan to do anything, so we wanted a designated point of contact who would be repsonsible for providing regular progress reports. Then finally, gradually, progress began. All told it was still over a 5-year effort.

The take home message for me is that dogged, unrelenting persistence can be effective, despite the brush offs from the designated point of contact.

Sg

What is unfortunate is that we often end up performing as agents of the Commission; that is, monitoring and reporting back to the Commission on progress of issues to which the Commission has given direction to Staff.

I wrote "unfortunate" because while it is in our best interest to monitor progress it is also my perception that the Commission often fails to establish specific timelines for status reports and to maintain a "tickler file" to ensure that such reports are included on the appropriate agenda.

However, as the old adage goes, if you want it done right do it yourself. Stay involved and maintain your presence before the Commission.