Thanks Ron for retelling the spitting story. You are absolutely right about sticking to our mission and not sinking to the level of the commercial fishermen. Like Slabquest said during the protest: Whose crab are these anyway? Do they belong to the tribes? Do they belong to the commercial fishermen? NO

Actually, I feel that the crab belong to the citizens of this state, including the tribes and non-tribal commercials.

What I feel is grossly unfair and unjustifiable is a crab harvest allocation which gives the smallest user group (242 commercial licenses, ?? tribes) almost all the crab and leaves crumbs for the largest user group (140,000 sport crabbers) who benefit the state the most.

As I was discussing with Gary Hulsey on Saturday, when the ocean take is included (and WHY wouldn't it?) the spilt is worse than 85%/15%. It's about 19.5 million pounds for commercials and 1.5 million for recreationals. What's that? About 7% of the total state harvest for us??

Fishnut,

I think your earlier post on this thread shows the vast and thoughtful degree of dedication that PSA is putting into shelfish / salmon fishing quotas for us recreational fisherman. Keep up the good work!!!

Full Freezer,

YES! PSA meeting is this Tuesday night at the Edmonds Yacht Club @ 6:30.

Kelly Morrison (owner of Silver Horde Tackle) is our speaker. He has a very interesting presentation on the evolution and use of terminal gear. And he may bring some freebies. We may also have a special surprise guest speaker - a very well known fisherman.

And, as usual, there will be food, beverages, videos, raffle and general fishing BS.

It was an interesting day!! I took the day and drove over with my boat to show some support. I was joined by Ron " aka Fishnut " and two other members of our PSA Sno-King chapter. We also met up with another rig, Our Pres Grandpa and Treasurer "Slabquest", and a couple other members that where making a difference. To set the story straight, I was lucky to have my wife’s rig to make the trip more comfortable, and had a boat in tow for the parade through town. We had signs showing our cause and where basically driving with the others through PT and from the slim crowd, we had the support of most everyone. As we approached a bakery on one side with a lady waving and cheering for us the other side had a bar with about 5-7 men standing in front of it. As we passed by Fishnut waved to them and they in return spit towards us. I don’t believe they where trying to hit us, if they where my 10 years old daughter could have taught them something about a hucking a luggie it was pathetic and not just the act of doing it. At the time i thought they where showing us what they thought about our cause. I later heard that they through rock at J.D. Wade while he was taking pictures of our convoy and through candy back at the convoy that was giving as a thank you. Fishnut and I later joked about the fact that if we stopped the rig and confronted them with all the other supporters that had been organized for the crabbing, that we would have kicked their butts, but we would have lost all that we had worked for in credibility. Instead by what did ignoring them and showing our force 181,000 Washington recreational crabbers vs. 250 commercial crabbers we have a great advantage, if get better organized and work together to use our number in persons and economics we will get what we deserve, our fair share. I was a little disappointed at the turn out, I saw a lot more that made the effort to fight opening day madness of crabbing than I saw go out to make it so there isn’t a need to kill your selves or any one else because it has been so long since we have been able to crab. We need to be willing to put some effort into supporting our fisheries and not just use them, We get the raw end of the deal so many time and we don’t do anything about. Its time that we start and make a difference. The PSA is a great way, there are also other groups. Join one and see. PSA is in most parts of western Washington, find a chapter in your area and check it out. Hats off to the PT chapter they are a class group and I look forward to working with them again.

PSA Link

Hmmm, Grandpa a Teddy Bear??? Aunty - when was the last time you had your eyes checked? Just Kidding, Grandpa is somewhat of a caveman in terms of politics, but I send out a hearty "well done" for the representation he and all of you did in bringing our concerns to the attention of the commission. Hopefully your reward will come in this life!!!

Thank you all.

Eddie..I know grandpa...and Eddie you're NO grandpa. He stands up for what he believes even if it isn't what you liberal whiners want to hear. He may not be a teddy bear but he ain't no chicken neither.

WFL - I know Grandpa as well, he's one of the good ones. He calls me Fidel, I call him Adolf - it's all good.

CAVEMAN??? Just because I like Al Sharpton? Or is it because I eat meat? All I know is that I don't spit on those who disagree with me. There are too many of those folks and I don't have enough spit.

Here is some new stuff on the protest Saturday from KING CRAB (JD WADE)
:
Now the REST of the story:
I’m writing, as a reporter of the event, “a few hundred recreational crabbers showed up for the Crab Convoy and following protest demonstration at the WDFW commission meeting at Fort Warden, Saturday, December 6. WDFW enforcement officers came to the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, site of the “convoy” staging area, at 0900 to take a head count of participants, to determine the extent of their needed security for the commission meeting. You never know how many will show up for such an event. Organizers had been repeatedly asked how many would come and the only reply was something between 50 and 5,000. (there were state patrol officers awaiting on ‘stand-by’ in case of need.) The Port Townsend Police were VERY helpful. They devoted a large “resource” to the task. We didn’t know “exactly” when or where we would travel, so they devoted many radio cars and multiple personnel to protecting our travel routes. They shuffled “resources” to assure every intersection we encountered was blocked from normal traffic allowing us to “blow” thru red lights and stop signs.
The commission was to break for lunch at 11;45, so our “convoy” with 150 sport anglers driving six dozen vehicles, towing a few dozen boats decorated into floats, (one even with Christmas lights powered by an onboard generator), left the fairgrounds at 10:30 so we could cruise downtown and present our “ceremonial fish-in” with TV cameras rolling. We arrived downtown and began tooting our vehicle horns and air-horns. Some of our “floats” were spectacular, displaying signs and banners The route had been explained in several newspapers during the previous month. Commercial fisherman were awaiting in ambush.
(Let me back up here to report upon another event of the night before.
I was having dinner at the old Sea Galley Restaurant, after the Friday WDFW commission session, with noted writer from Yakima, Jim Pearson. During our quiet dinner conversation, Jim asked me how anyone knew how many commercial crab fishermen sold crab off their boats without reporting that catch? Suddenly, there was a very large male individual who had sprang from the next table screaming at us that he was a commercial crab fisherman and he was appalled at hearing us calling him a “thief” in front of his dining family. Then the lady at his table began screaming that we should not call them “thieves” in front of their (about 13 year-old) daughter!!! A very ugly scene in a crowded restaurant. We simply agreed we would stop discussing their industry. I’m sure they knew EXACTLY who we were.)
We were cruising down mainstreet Port Townsend,”Blasting” thru red-light intersections, under the direction of the PT police, with the lead vehicle participants tossing wrapped candies to anyone along the sidewalks, when we came to 12 commercial fishermen standing on a street-corner. How do we know they were “commercials”? Several had jackets embroidered “DUTCH HARBOR” or some “FV...name”.
I witnessed the candy tossed to them, where-by the sidewalk loiters aggressively scooped them up and violently threw them back at the convoy. As we passed the ambush crowd, I watched, in my rear view mirror, two members of them step off the curb and lean toward the vehicle following my motorhome. I thought they were responding verbally to our chants of “more crab for sportsmen”, but the participants of my following vehicle told me the sidewalk undesirables were spitting at them and one of them had scooped up a handful of dirt from a nearby decorative planter and launched it at my vehicle.
We proceeded to the commission meeting site. The Fort Warden State Park personnel had opened gates normally closed to the public, allowing us immediate access to the building of the commission meeting. This is where we were to produce the maximum “noise”, as the commission had sealed off the windows on the side of the meeting building they knew we were to travel. THEY WOULD AT LEAST HEAR US...........NOT!
As we “blew” past the meeting building, I was proud of the resounding noise produced by car horns, boat whistles and air horns. BUT...it fell on deaf ears. The commission had taken an early lunch break and all were GONE! (I’ve NEVER known them to break early before)
So it was decided by quick vote, we would plug the parking lot and surround the building with vehicles and boats, and await their return. They were somewhat inconvenienced by having to park in outlying lots and walk past our signs but everyone was courteous and respectful on both sides. The commission got our message. Save sport crabbing in Puget Sound. Give us larger quotas. Now it’s up to the advisor group to “negotiate” those quotas with state commercial fishermen. It will be a tough session.

Hats off to the Puget Sound Anglers!

They say the squeaky wheel gets first grease.

Let's hope all this crabbin' gets us a few more crabs.

Plunker...It already has..stay tuned/