Haven't heard an official ruling on the crab seasons yet. Anyone have the skinny?

Heard a rumor (friend of a friend of a friend...) that the crab opener will be pushed out 'til the middle of July and limit down to 4. Anyone heard any truth to this? I'm not trying to spread rumors but the limit of 4 was an option posed by WDFW a while back and the opener has been in question for the past few years.

There will be a commission hearing in Olympia on May 14th. Final rules will be set then or shortly thereafter. There are many proposals on the table, but most, if not all, involve reduced seasons and reduced bag limits.

I think they are leaning toward a July 1 opener and a 4 crab limit. But other options, such as no overnight soaks, limited days per week, etc. are under consideration. RFA, PSA and others are working hard to protect out seasons. With four new commissioners aboard anything could happen.

This would be an important meeting to attend and speak your piece. I plan to be there.

Here is the draft position paper of the Recreational Crab Advisory Group. It is a compromise position within the group, but does provide a starting point for discussions with WDFW and the Commission.


Puget Sound Recreational Crab Advisory Group

DRAFT Position Paper
March 25, 2005

Topic: Actions to Extend the Duration of the Recreational Crab Season

1. Revise the current WDFW Commission Dungeness Crab Management Policy for those regions where both state commercial and recreational crab fisheries occur to reallocate a larger quantity of the state’s share of crab to the recreational harvest group. The increased allocation would need to be sufficient to have a measurable increase in season duration in each region.

2. Adopt an alternative sampling method of recreational crab fishers to estimate the recreational crab catch and to improve constituent confidence in the catch estimates. The alternative method would either supplement or replace the current method of conducting phone surveys of catch record cardholders to obtain information used to estimate the catch.

3. After items #1 and #2 are adequately addressed, adopt additional regulatory restrictions if needed to extend the fishing season for harvest opportunity during the fall and winter holidays after at least a summer fishery through the Labor Day weekend. . effectively slow the catch rate of the recreational fishery. General season structure would be designed to provide at least two months of fishing in the summer and at least additional fishing opportunity during the fall and winter holidays.

4. Design the 2005-06 season with a uniform fixed opening date mid June with the potential to open earlier if test fishing results indicate the molt cycle is complete.

I'm planning on being in Oly on the 14th. I've never been to one of these things before so it will be a learning experience for me.