Good news! Thanks to your efforts contacting your Senators yesterday along with the support of several key legislators, SB 5661 was the last bill to pass the Senate last night – it passed by a vote of 47-1!
We want to recognize the efforts of Senators Sharon Nelson (D – Maury Island) – the bill’s primary sponsor, Senator Kevin Ranker (D-Friday Harbor) – who pushed for a floor vote, and Senator Val Stevens (R-Arlington) – who pulled it from the Senate Rules Committee.
As you know, SB 5661 requires mandatory reporting of lost or abandoned commercial fishing gear (primarily gillnets). Current state law merely “encourages” reporting of these “ghost nets” and the system clearly hasn’t work with just a handful of nets voluntarily reported since 2002. During the same period approximately 300 new nets were lost in Puget Sound. Annually this deadly gear kills tens of thousands of fish (including endangered salmon and rockfish), birds and other wildlife and harms important underwater habitat.
With the strong vote in the Senate the bill now moves onto the House, where it will receive a hearing this Friday.
We need you to contact your Representatives NOW and urge them to support the passage of SB 5661. Click the link below to send your message, which we have pre-drafted for you. You are free to edit it, but it is important that you contact your two Representatives today!


Click the link below to log in and send your message:
http://www.votervoice.net/link/target/ccapnw/5bzE2Kiy.aspx

bumpty bump

Sent my thanks to Sen. Stevens who is in my district. She is in contact with my district's reps to support it in the House.

DONE!

C'mon folks.... let's bring down the HOUSE!

Thanks to CCA for coordinating this effort.

FYI... you do NOT need to be a CCA member to use voter-voice. The system just makes it stupid-easy to get the message to YOUR legislators based on your home address.

Thanks to any and all PP'ers for participating!

Here is the PSA link for the others to sign on

http://www.votervoice.net/Groups/PSA/Advocacy/?IssueID=27519&SiteID=-1

I heard that the bill was not allowed to get out for a vote in the House. I would like to know what Representative held it in committee so it couldn't be voted on. We need to raise the noise level for that person and committee. Very disappointing, considering the overwhelming vote in the Senate.

Looks like TVW will carry this live at 8:00am.

One can also call the hotline 1.800.562.6000 to leave a message to your Representatives.

If this does not pass out of committee or in the House, members of non profit orgs. need to be careful, in order to protect the tax status of any particular non profit. That means designated signatures in particular. One side wont care, but the opponents could raise a fuss. At the very least, noone wants to make the rounds apologiziing. juss sayin...

Bill hearing in house

http://www.tvw.org/index.php?option=com_tvwplayer&eventID=2011021181

Next,
Feb 21 Scheduled for executive session in the House Committee on Agriculture & Natural Resources at 10:00 AM. (Subject to change)

http://www.tvw.org/index.php?option=com_tvwplayer&eventID=2012021070


Go to minute 1:41:00 Bill was already introduced and cut away to other bills and returned to 5661

My take on the main points of concern with the bill seemed to be:

1. ID: First, it was noted that there is a lack of a requirement that nets have identification on them which some testified should be required. Others opined that such ID could be lost during fishing ops or after loss of a particular net. WDFW's Burley stated that WDFW can require ID on gear to include nets.

2. Lack of Funding: NW Straits Commission testified that since their inception in 2002 they have removed almost 4,000 nets all with grant money. The last of that was $4.6 MM in Fed stimulus which ran out 31 Dec 11 which they used to remove almost 2,500 nets. Their representative said that they do not have any money to effect removal of nets which might be reported but could have an on call team available for $100-$150 K per year. The Chair, Sen. Ranker, opined to the WDFW's Craig Burley that WDFW should give them the money.

3. Penalty: There is no penalty and there were suggestions to add a penalty for not timely reporting a lost net. A certain amount of confusion and hand wringing over the idea of establishing a penalty for losing a net versus (1) not having ID on a net being fished or (2) not calling in when a net is lost. Fear that if a fisher is penalized for losing a net they will not report it. Again, it seemed those who were concerned were confused about the proposed requirement and what would trigger a penalty.

If you have the time it might be worth actually hearing the testimony.

No one spoke against the bill.

Since they allow netting and no fault reporting, I dont see the point in fines, unless they continue to not report. The more we ask for the steeper the climb. Crab pots were marked and noone cared until NWS made it a priority. It would be great, if the crabbers would give coordinates. It would probably save a sheet load of crab, since they can survive about 50 days in the pot. I dont personally know how far down they drop their pots. Over 105 feet and it calls for a different protocol for diving.

The problem seems to be that despite the current "no fault" voluntary reporting program lost nets are simply not being reported. NW Straits Commission estimated 10-30 nets lost each year and depending upon who is talking there have been either zero or two lost nets called in by fishers. Hence the concern that a requirement to report is essentially toothless unless a fisher can be held accountable for a lost but not reported net. And that accountability can only occur if there is a requirement to have an identification on each net so that if a lost net is subsequently recovered it can be identified and records searched to determine if its loss was properly reported.

Or we can simply continue status quo which no one seems to support.

During the executive session Feb 21, ESB5661 was reported out of committee Do pass 13-0.