Likewise.....just keeping the joke going a bit

So after your discussion with him did it sound like he might put together another story?

Just threw my jab to the chin...

Mr. Johnson,

As a religious viewer of KIRO 7 news for many years, I am upset and deeply concerned at the nonfactual "crabber allocation" story that aired the other evening. With the strong reputation KIRO has held, I am in shock that such nonsense was even air without research or comment from the sportspersons of our great state.

There is no need for me to point out factual numbers. Surely you have received numerous emails already with accurate and/or detailed facts from us "sporties." It is time to research and correct your story with facts and not propaganda hearsay from our corrupt WDFW. If KIRO cannot live up to it's reputation as an accurate source of media, I am forced to move to a reliable, yet truthful station.

Respectfully,

John Abbott
Lakebay, Washington

Jeez, I cannot believe the shoot the messenger mentality you guys have. Here's the REAL STORY on the KIRO story, and believe me, I know. KIRO got the story from the Skagit Valley Herald, pasted below.

The story came from a WDFW press release. They (WDFW) are meeting Saturday morning to talk about severely limiting recreational crab harvest in Puget Sound, because of what THEY (not KIRO!) says is severe overharvest.

The WDFW is going to set these rules, KIRO was simply reporting what the WDFW is considering, as did the Skagit Valley Herald.

The media's job is to let the public know about things like this, seems to me the Skagit Valley paper and KIRO did a pretty good job. And you guys want to picket them? What the hell?!
Seems pretty obvious who your beef is with.

State may cut into crab seasons
By Denny Church

Denny Church
The Fish & Wildlife Commission will meet at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday at the Natural Resources Building in Olympia.

Among the items on the agenda is a briefing on strategies for cutting the recreational crab harvest in Puget Sound.

According to a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife news release, the recreational harvest has doubled in less than a decade and "has cut into the share of the harvest reserved for commercial and tribal fisheries in each of the past four seasons. In some areas of Puget Sound there's so much gear on the water that we can't shut the fishery down fast enough to keep the recreational harvest within its harvest guidelines."

Reduced recreational bag limits, delayed openings, and fishing fewer days a week are being considered.

WDFW marine resources manager Morris Barker said, "The situation varies from one area of Puget Sound to another, so we're not looking for a ‘one-size-fits-all management solution."

Public comment periods will be included at the meeting. Or you can contact the commission via e-mail at commission@dfw.wa.gov.

Another commission meeting devoted solely to the crab allocation issue will be held at 9 a.m. on May 14 at the Tyee Center in Tumwater.
Leque Island hunting ban proposed

The WDFW, the Snohomish County executive, Senator Mary Margaret Haugen and former governor Gary Locke were handed a homeowners petition to ban hunting on the Leque Island-Smith Farm public hunting site between Stanwood and Camano Island.

A public meeting on this topic has been scheduled for 7 p.m. on March 9 at Stanwood Middle School.

The petition claims hunting in the fields near State Highway 532 is a danger to motorists, that it disturbs the peace and tranquility of the surrounding area and that the shotgun blasts are disruptive to game and non-game species resting on Port Susan and south Skagit Bay.

The WDFW pheasant release site on Fir Island will soon be converted to salmon and waterfowl habitat.

If hunting is banned at Leque Island, the nearest pheasant release site will be north of Bellingham.

Pheasant release sites are popular with older hunters who are no longer able to make long trips to the Columbia Basin.

A similar homeowner effort to ban hunting on a portion of Whidbey Island is also underway.

If you attend the meeting, keep your comments constructive. If you are unable to attend, comments can be directed to WDFW Region Four Resource Manager Bob Everitt.

Schlab,

I am not shooting the messenger, I am questioning the messengers intent of why he only reported a small part of the whole story. I have been lead to believe that a reporter should report the WHOLE story, unbiased with all the information so the mass public can understand the TRUE picture of the situation and form their own opinion.

You are telling me that Mr. Jay Johnson from KIRO basically plagiarized the story that ran in the Skagit Valley Herald, Quote “ Here's the REAL STORY on the KIRO story, and believe me, I know. KIRO got the story from the Skagit Valley Herald, pasted below. The story came from a WDFW press release. They (WDFW) are meeting Saturday morning to talk about severely limiting recreational crab harvest in Puget Sound, because of what THEY (not KIRO!) says is severe over harvest.” End quote

If that is what you as truly saying, what a pi$$ poor job Mr. Johnson did and it aired on one of are leading MAJOR TV news stations, that hurts.

I then ask why Mr. Johnson doesn’t follow publications like the Seattle Times, report Mark Yuasa and the Seattle P.I. , reporter Greg Johnson. In their stories you can see that they did their research and reported BOTH sides or the whole story.
A great example would be the reports they published about the over catch by the Makah. They made sure that their readers would come away with a much better grasp of the WHOLE story good or bad, as any good reporter, of any media type should.

The fact is if you watched KIRO’s story, you would have come away believing that recreational crabbing is at fault for harvesting too many crabs. When that fact is the WDFW have mis-allocated the crab harvest for many years and are unwilling to even consider righting their wrong.

The FACT recreational crabbers are CURRENLTY allowed ONLY, under the direction of the same persons “WDFW”, who supplied the miss-information bulletin and is the only piece of information KIRO chose to use, 3% of the Washington State total harvestable crab allocation. In the Puget Sound crab allocation the recreational crabber receives a whopping 16% of the total.

The FACT is over a 150,000 individual licensed recreational shell fishermen are FORCED to split 16% of the Puget Sound crab harvest, while 181 individual commercially licensed shell fishermen are allowed to share 34% of the Puget Sound crab harvest. Another fact that is obscure to most is that while a recreational crabber can only have ONE license at a time the commercial crabber can have multiple licenses. This explains the fact that there are 250 commercial Puget Sound licenses issued and only 181 owners.

There is even more to this story, much more and it has been out here for a long time. If KIRO had done it’s JOB and researched just a little bit, it would have realized this FACT and report the whole story. I understand why the WDFW did what they did, publishing that the recreational crabber’s are at fault, they where hoping someone would be lazy enough use it without any question. I do not understand why KIRO was the ONLY one who did.

I am asking and will continue to ask KIRO to do another story, only this time they need to report the complete story.

Here are three very easy to reach contacts for Mr. Johnson to contact if he is having trouble finding where to get information regarding this issue.

Washington State PSA President
Steve Sande
SSANDE1@aol.com

RFA Washington State Chairman
Mike Gilchrist
thinker@gamefishin.com

RFA Washington State Vice-Chairman
Clint Muns
Fishhog211@aol.com

Has anyone recieved a reply at all from KIRO?

Any suggestions of what we can do to help them respond to our e-mails?

Should we contact the onther statins and let them know what KIRO has done and see if they would like to air the whole story.

This BS doesn't suprize me at all. Koening has commercial background. Not only rec. crabbers. Hunters too. They are planning on flooding hunting lands to increase chinook production. This on the face seem to be a good idea. However they have other areas that don't affect hunters they could use BUT ARE NOT. They are not repairing areas they have already flooded but mismanaged. They have cut enforcement. The WADF&W is definitely siding with the Native american commercial interests.(they sure buried the Makah overharvest fast) I feel there is an effort to remove rec. hunting and fishing as much as possible. One it costs the state money to run and two we are a pain to them on legal issues.

As a note: I don't hate native americans. I just think some groups have more influence than others and some bad apples.