Why should the public have to fund a gear change? I don't see any rebates coming back to the sport fishing community or retailers when gear restrictions are changed.

We know hook and line folks (us) can catch fish. I suspect a commercial troller might do okay, too, and be a lot more selective in what goes into the fish box.

I agree, and I don't think it ends at harvest methods and/or allocation.

One of things that I was disappointed in (and commented upon), when I read the SSMP, was that the DFW seems to have have made the strategic choice to just accept the current situation where they have little say or impact on upland policy and management. If I understand the situation correctly, on runs like Puget Sound steelhead, habitat is the limiting factor, yet DFW has little regulatory power to affect needed changes.

If, the "commission, director, and the department shall preserve, protect, perpetuate, and manage the wildlife and food fish, game fish, and shellfish in state waters and offshore waters", but don't have the regulatory power to achieve their goals, wouldn't it be a good idea to have the goal of gaining that power? While I recognize that it might be a difficult goal (the DOE and DNR and some of the public might balk), just shrugging their collective shoulders about the situation isn't protecting the resource. A more ambitious outreach plan to gain public support for achieving their goal could help a lot, too.

AuntyM, Agree I do; so another message will be in the works in light of the words from the Commission Chairman that we need to backup our public testimony with a follow through with the legislators. Perhaps I'll even try to bend his ear in Olympia now that the legislative session is about to start.

Todd, your post has prompted me to reply.
There is a law that is seldom used against the WDFW and its called Public Disclosure. When Bob posted about the fairy tale escapement numbers and potentially filing suit, it would be awesome for those in the know to utilize public disclosure to obtain documents related to any issue a sporting citizen desired.

BY LAW the department HAS to comply with the request.

If anyone has any questions about how file a public disclosure request please let me know. I can send you state policy docs stating how to do it.

GO GET UM Guru's

tj,

So far as the work that I and the WSC have done on the Columbia River tangle net fiasco, I have about 200 pounds of documents from ODFW, WDFW, and NOAA-F...all were easily obtained through PDA/FOIA requests, at no charge, even.

I think that the Bob posted wouldn't be all that useful in a PDA context, as the information in the documents is the suspect part...if you requested and received the documents, they would reflect the "fairy tale" numbers that were collected in the field...there'd be nothing to compare them to except for the statements of those who were there, statements that would call the documents into question. I doubt that there would be two sets of documents, one that shows the fairy tale numbers, and one that shows the actual numbers.

Fish on...

Todd

It is my understanding that Ed Owens did not write the letter for Senator Hatfield.

Of all this insanity, the truly amazing thing to me is the $4M total gross. mentioned by Todd. If' that's truly the total LCR fishery gross, it's mindblowingly small. That's 80 guys employed at $50k/yr. And if it's gross, we're talking far less when you subtract off all costs/fuel/etc.

How in the world does any of this make economic sense?

Good lord, we should close this fishery, pay them a 2 year severance package and shut it down permanently. Probably costs less than 2 studies and the cleanup bill from one of their spills.

Am I missing something?

---- Irish

...some politician would probably whine about the loss of revenue to the state from the ex-vessel tax on the landed value of the catch which is around .0525 %....

Personally, I don't think a buy-out is an option. What other businesses, required to have a state license/registration, are bought out by the state when things go bad or the state imposes restrictions on how they do business?

Yeah Aunty. That was cool when Orcutt testified, and he spoke well too. Kinda' surprised me cuz he's the Rep. who thrashed WDFW over the St. Helen's elk herd last year. Hunters and fishermen should keep their eye on this guy as a strong ally in the legislature.

Did I miss saying Hi to you Saturday Auntie?

Buyouts don't do any good when the commercial % doesn't change. Just the same total amount of fish caught by less commercial fishermen.

Point taken Jerry. I guess I'm arguing for a buyout CONTINGENT on assigning the commercial LCR take to sportfishermen.

I sent a Thank You! mailto:orcutt.ed@leg.wa.gov

Then you missed me at the end of the open public imput say at the mic that I 've noticed in the last 10 years that the less opportunity I have to fish the fatter I get, stood up and gave the crowd a side shot of the tummy.

Why are you so honest Auntie?