#begin rant
Every time I pull out my CRC, I have to laugh. The current process is soooo bad.

Maybe improvements are in the works, and this has been posted on elsewhere, but I'll still rant - I will not be denied!

The WDFW relying on a group of people to send in CRCs is fraught with pitfalls and perils - a real statistician wouldn't do this. The statistics may be used to set seasons, limits, etc., but how reliable are they really?

Consider this: if everyone sent in a CRC, it's basically a $.50 increased license fee (yes, the price of a stamp recently went down - we won't be getting a rebate on those forever stamps we have). What would happen if the license fee was increased $.50, and the $ collected over several years went to improve the end user experience at the retailer? Specifically, when you get a new license, have a reader that can read the barcode at the top of your CRC - and automatically deduct the extra $ for not sending one in. In the future, as the CRC is improved, the reader can gather statistics (no, steelhead weren't fished for, yes, salmon were). Then the retiler can send in the cards en masse. Or we can go down the online route. Yes, there are issues with CRCs for different species and different dates, but nothing that can't be overcome. No, we don't want to just punch perforated circles out (hanging chad issue).

As a side note, I don't mind the extra $ collected if the CRC is not sent in. If it amounts to $100, I don't care what happens to it. If it is $100,000, does it go directly to improving the statistics collection process?

As anoter side note - why are the boxes on the CRC so small? If you're in an open skiff, and it's pouring down rain, the only dry place is where you are sitting. So you try that and your pen doesn't write with hard aluminum behind it, so you try to write on your thigh, and you get something down, but it may not be readable. And why is the list of area/zone codes not printed on the back of the CRC? There's a state seal there now - that's just wasted white space. So you fish several rivers and the have to look up a list of codes in the regs (which then get wet), if you remembered to bring them. And a CRC is in a wallet and sat on for 365 days. And maybe it goes through the wash. Then you try to peel it apart and the ink (needs improving) comes off and is now on the wrong side, and your entries are basically unreadable.

Maybe it's time for a citizens commission on JUST the CRC process. I'm sure the people who get the CRCs and have to enter the statistics have some ideas about improvement.

The state either needs to eliminate this requirement or improve the process. The current situation is unacceptable.
#end rant

Not to high jack this topic but on the lines of licensing, Why when you go to get your license it is such a hassle, Need your ID (OK) did you get one last year(YES) can't find you in the system, you take my SS #, why is it so hard, Yet I go to Oregon they ask for SS# & ID what do you want, Click, click click, Thank You, Our WDFW better get it together while they still can, or maybe its to late, they can't seem to get anything else right,

I guess I have it good. I just give them my old WA license and they issue a new one. No ID, SSN, nothing. I could be someone else for all they know. I'm sure the reailer will change their policy at some point in the future.

Hi Sal,

I'm the CRC manager for WDFW, so I guess your rant is directed at me. I'll take a shot at answering your questions.

We get enough cards back to produce reasonably good estimates. We've been doing this long enough now (fifty years!) that we have a pretty good handle on the the non-response bias, and we spend a lot of time checking and reviewing the returns. We have had statisticians (real ones, I'm pretty sure) compare the estimates to those derived from more costly means, like creel and effort surveys, and found no significant difference. If you want more info on the whole estimation process, let me know - I can send you a description.

We actively discourage people from turning in their cards at the dealers. That just inserts another middleman, one who does not necessarily have any incentive to get the cards back to us in a timely fashion. So mail is the preferred method, until we can get online reporting up for fish, which hopefully won't take too much longer. From our experience with crab reporting, I think we will get about 80% of our reports in online.

There is no penalty for failure to return fish cards. So the money collected there is $0.

The cards are already pretty long. If we make the boxes bigger, either the card gets longer or we have fewer boxes. It's a compromise. The thermal paper that we use has gotten better over the years but it is still not perfect by a long shot. The vendors are the ones who demanded that all the licenses be printable on the same paper stock - that is why we have the grocery receipt-like licenses instead of the old pre-printed cards. The old cards were easier to write on, but the vendors really didn't like having to keep inventory of multiple documents.

So for now, keep on mailing in those cards. Things will get better when we have 1) online reporting and 2) an optional app to use in place of the physical card. Both of those are on the wish list, but sometimes the wheels turn slower than we all would like.

Thanks for your patience, and I hope you fill all the little boxes on your card this year.

- Eric

So if we DO NOT turn in our CRC cards we WILL NOT get nailed the following year for not doing so?

Somehow I thought it was a $10.00 ish penalty.

Was going to mail ours today but will wait for reply.

Thanks for updating,

fp

fp, no penalty for fish cards. Crab cards = $10 penalty. I assume Eric will confirm that.

They should treat turning in CRC's like big game reports and if you turn it in on time you'll get entered into a chance to win a salmon tag. That would entitle the winner to catch and release (of course) 1 Pugets Sound salmon.

YES PLEASE!

I am very happy to hear that this is at least on the table/in the works.

Good to know this process is changing albeit slowly.

Will we someday only have to record data in case we are checked, or do you see it as "record data and send it in?"

The retailer may be a middleman, but think about the user experience of the end license holder. Fishing, jockeying around boats, crowded waters - we have to deal with all these and more. The easier it is for us, the better the stats will be. Maybe the retailers need to be incented...

For the online reporting, are you aiming to make it real time, or annually?

Not directed at you - just something I needed to get off my chest.

Great to see some of the things in the works. I miss the old CRC summary reports wdfw used to publish.

If you live close to a WDFW office the punch cards can be turned in there. Just happens I drive right past the Region 6 office, so makes it easy for me.

I also look for a change, smart phones could make the process so easy, with the correct software.

Hi all,

Eventually we'll have the option of recording catch on paper or on an app. One possibly tricky issue there: Access to the app by Enforcement in the field. Hopefully that will get worked out...

The catch reports generated in part from CRC returns are on the web at http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/harvest/

The $10 fines were put in for crab in order to get sufficient reports back within a fairly short period of time. So far, that hasn't been needed for fish. I'd rather be inconsistent and NOT charge fines if they aren't needed. But to each his own, I suppose.

I like the idea of raffling off a ticket to keep one Puget Sound salmon. I wouldn't mind one of those myself.

- Eric

Just a question on specific fisheries and the relationship between CRC and creel check.

Lake WA sockeye, at least in the 80s, were managed based on an intensive creel check. Daily flights, angler checks all day, and so on. Came up with the number used to manage. As I recall, in one year, the CRC said something like 40K (the share) and the CRC said something like 60K. Has this specific fishery been looked at?

As I recall, the estimate was based on anglers who launched at the various ramps but there was no way to census lakeside landowners who had their own docks.

Very simple. Officer enters your Wild ID# and looks to see if any catch has been attributed to your number. Probably the simplest part of the whole operation!

Carcassman,

In 2006, the last time we had a Lake WA sockeye fishery, the numbers were pretty close - 54K for the CRC vs. 58K for the creel. Inability to check catch at private sites does create the possibility for some bias - we see that in the PS creel checks as well.

_WW_ - easy to check the reports on the database if there is service at the site in question, which might not always be the case. The app will have to store the data and upload when service is available, which is fine for reporting but not so much for Enforcement.

- Eric

...and the angler opens his app and shows enforcement his most recent entry!

And if he doesn't want to? Little privacy issue there...

Just like any other app you download, you have to agree to its terms and conditions. For this app you would have to agree to share it with enforcement.

How can there be a privacy issue with seeing a digital catch record card as opposed to a paper one?

Cripes-a-Mighty! They do it with proof of insurance cards!
Quit trying to make this harder than it needs to be...

Are we going to have to drag you kicking and screaming into the 21st century?

Hey, I'm all for it.

What's so great about the 21st century anyway? Seems like there were more fish around in the last one.