I was wondering , with all the bull shiiit thats going on in washington state on fishing and hunting just who the hell dreams up these rules?

Years ago a fed Rep from a agricluture state remarked he knew what congress did but what he wanted know was the name of Ag Dept employee in the bowells of the concrete bunker that was writing these stupid regs. Kinda the same thing.

At one time it was staff. Actual hands-on staff. Now, most pop the contentious stuff in Fish is done by negotiators and staff (may) get a chance to improve/fix it.

Don't know about Wildife but it likely used to be regional staff as each Region was a Fiefdom.

Also, in the dim past there were office folks whose job it was to ensure readability, compliance with laws. make sense, enforceability. That's all gone out the door. See Greg Haw's books.

The thousand yards whale distance is a good example of the continued stupidity. First, enforcement would have to prove that the required distance was less than a thousand yards, but the clinker is that this law ONLY applies to SRK's! since this is defined as a crime, all elements of the law have to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. The likelihood of them being SRK's is very high, but not absolute. Another of my favorites is the requirement for hunters hunting in a Grizzly bear recovery area must pass the bear I.D. test and keep that scrap of paper with them. What if you go over just to hunt grouse, turkey or chukar?

Last summer we had Biggs Killers (the mammal eaters) in front of the house. A number of boats were not that far away. I really would like to see how one IDs the various Killer Whale types. I have seen description in field guides but at 1,000 yards? I don't carry a really powerful spotting scope out on a boat.

Just saw an announcement that the Federal Court shut this down saying QIN U&A has been adjudicated a long time ago. Stay tuned.

That's the way it should be.

If I could post pictures I have a really good one on the distance thing for whales. 10 years or so ago my brother wanted to fish out of Port Renfrew BC and we had stoped out in front of the straits to regroup for the day and out of nowhere we had several whales around us and I have a picture of Tim looking over the motor at the back half of a whale meanwhile in the bow I am staring down at the front of it as it swam right under the boat. My laundry was looking bad for a minute or so but I still don't know how a whale just under the surface did not hit the boat. I get the distance on whale watching but sometimes the whales do not seem to know the rules!

“ . I get the distance on whale watching but sometimes the whales do not seem to know the rules!“

Whales seem to still have some common sense about them, but the peeps, not so much anymore...

When we lived on Sequim Bay we had three transients visit. Bull, cow, calf. They went by our bulkhead at high tide. Our dogs were down on the bulkhead barking. Also had one smaller whale go under our ski boat as we were motoring through the San Juans. I really don't see how those rules can be enforced.

I think the whale rules must have been lobbied by the same people who live in a condo over looking Lake Washington that want to go to Winthrop to see wolves.
I like the idea of protecting whales, they are a great creature, but my experience with a lot of them on the water here, in B.C. and ten years in SE Alaska is that they are really smart. I got real close to humpbacks dozens of times, and they just don't care. Orcas swam near my boat on the prowl. One swam under and rolled over and looked at me, I swear.
Save the whales, but don't promulgate ridiculous laws that won't work. We'd be better off getting rid of a bunch of pinnnipeds and crank out more hatchery fish to feed and restore orcas than a make believe thousand yard buffer.