Does anyone get the Treaty Fish Regs from WDFW in email? Did anyone notice that most of the regs for crab openers state that crabbing is opne from June 30th, 2018 to March or April 30th, 2019??? What does that mean? That the tribes can crab all summer long?

I get them.

The tribes set their own seasons and bag limits. A lot of the fisheries you describe are going to be subsistence/ceremonial fisheries. The commercial openers are usually more restricted.

Actually the "quote" is divided between tribal and state and is agreed to by the co-managers. The tribes generally harvest their portion over the period of just a few days, whereas we recs take ours over the course of 3 months, plus winter opportunity. A lot of the tribes forgo winter crabbing cause they know it sucks and choose to harvest their total available quota in the summer.

The tribal commercial take is generally over fairly quickly. The tribal subsistence fishery is much longer.

I just don't remember seeing it posted like that is past years. It would be open for 7 days or so and then if they didn't get their quota it would open again for a few days. But not all summer and all winter long.

Have to actually read the whole reg. The Tribes, like the State, will issue separate regulations for commercial, ceremonial, and subsistence. Some of the "fine" rules will vary among the fisheries. There are the same type of regs for fin fish and shellfish.

What does the notice mean on the bottom of the page under "Justification: This regulation is a Shellfish Plan Paragraph 4.6 notice to proceed with a harvest in the absence of a co-manager agreement for the 2018-2019 Region 1 Dungeness Crab Harvest Management Plan......"

So they have a NOF agreement with the state for salmon but not for crab????

NOF is salmon, crab agreements are a separate process. Probably the same transparency as NOF. It does seem, though, that while NOF requires some sort of agreement to proceed crab fisheries don't require agreement.

Seems a bit odd that the State would allow and not challenge a supposedly shared fishery that was conducted without agreements.

There is a reason that the Nisqually tribe doesn't report crab catch numbers to the state, they don't consider the state as co-managers. I have had this point of view expressed by more then one tribal fisher and Billy Frank is rolling over in his grave at the direction this has taken. Many times has he said that the only way the salmon would survive AND thrive would be for co-manager co-operation. Accountability in tribal court for crab and salmon would be a big step in the right direction. Bob r

Co-management takes two (therefore the co-). The State could take action. Their inaction would appear to support the Tribe's claim.

Been comm pots in A-10 for a quite some time now. They were still there last night.....assume they will go out Friday, day before rec opener.

I do wish the tribal take would all happen in a couple days in March/Apr/May. I don't know about the molting calendar and all that, but what I do know is when they harvest in June, a majority of the crab I pull in July have to go back since they measure just under 6 1/4". Maybe if they harvested earlier, one more molting cycles might help get them to 6 1/4"...not that I like keeping that size, but you get the point.

Tribal co-managers have harvested 5.1 tons more crab PER YEAR than the state share...PER YEAR for the last 17 years ( from WDFW data) in Crab Region 4, which is roughly the same as marine Area 10.

Good luck tomorrow for those that get out.
I hope it is better then last year. I've been seeing more mated up crabs this spring then last year, but still nothing like 2016.
SF

Judging by the amount of tribal pressure in Port Susan lately, the only place that'll have any crab now is the Tulalip casino.

1 keeper for four pots, 2 hour soak this AM. A-10. Pretty bleak.

Four keepers between my buddy and I.
Not great, but not too bad for doing the eel grass shuffle.
SF

Insane pressure out of Everett. By 8 PM 350 boats that had not fished (crabbers?) had returned to the ramp!

2 crab yesterday. A ton of females.

Moved pots and let soak overnight. 20 keepers for 6 pots. Small crab overall.

South end of 8-2 slow on Saturday with 5 keepers for two of us followed on Sunday with 8 on full six hour incoming tide soaks. Very much hit and miss even within the same general locale and not anywhere near as many rec crabbers out as in past years. Maybe last year's scarcity had them trying new crabbing areas. Anyway, it was a bit slower than last year's opener and I suspect it will drop off quickly in both production and, correspondingly, crabbing activity.

And remember, no crabbing on the 4th of July (a Wednesday).

My opener report out of area 10 Kingston. 6 pots 2 days with an overnight soak. 18 keepers which sounds good but our history here is usually sorting the biggest and throwing keepers over because of full daily limits. Most this year just barely legal, not many big boys. Has me a little worried because not as many smallies and females in the catch. Hope the problems South aren't moving North. Wonder how the tribes have done, or how to find out?