Crab allocation for sport fishing.

S

starcrafttom

Active member
If you want to help increase the sport fishing for crab in Washington then please follow this link and let the government know.

we stand to gain two days a week and a longer season. this in the long term translate to more jobs and tax revenue for the state. It also means I get to crab on Sundays and not just Friday. so please read, research and sign if you agree. thank you

http://www.votervoice.net/Core.aspx?AID=1285&APP=GAC&IssueID=22843&SiteID=-1
 
Here's a crabbing question for you Tom. We stayed at Deer Harbor Marina on Orcas Island the first week of September. There were a group of Canadians there that had set up a real production line on the dock. The guys were making multiple trips out and bringing back crabs and the women were cracking and packaging for two days. It didn't look like there was any shortage of crab, and I found it interesting that Canadians would come over to our side to crab.

I guess I bought into the idea that crab were endangered in the San Juans. Didn't look like it. This group looked like they were getting ready for a long winter.
Lyle
 
Lyle if you listen to the wdfw you would think that there is not crab. they have been cutting back the sport allocation for years. shorter season and smaller limits. this was brought on by the way that the wdfw counted your catch not any decline in crab.

You see the wdfw sold you a license and you caught crab. Then at the end of the year the wdfw would call a sampling of sport fishing licence holder. Based on this the wdfw would come up with a "average" count. then they would multiply that number by the number of license sold. Here in lies the problem. Not all ,or even half, of the people that buy fishing license catch crab. its cheaper to buy a combo license for the salt and fresh water even if you are only going to fish salt for one day then to buy a fresh water licence and a one day crab permit so most people just get the combo whether they are going to crab or not and there by get counted for taking the average number. the result was a very high count against the allocation for the sport fisherman and shorter season.

so a few years ago we, the psa and others, forced the wdfw to issue crab cards to get a real count. we got the cards and where only charged 3 buck for them. well they continued to us the phone survey for 4 more years and ignored the crab cards. in fact they spent the money for the card count on boats and other shit.

well after a lot of political b.s. they finally counted the cards last year and guess what. the sport fisherman were not catching near what the state insisted we were.

so now we are trying to get the state to reallocate more crab to us and longer seasons. there are three options on the table. 1) less crab for us and more for the commercials. 2) what we have now and 3) more days and longer seasons. we are looking to get the third option.
 
Lyle,

Question of interest...Was everyone who had a license pulling their own traps? :roll: I saw a fellow ticketed last year for pulling traps on his kids and wife's license. :? Also was anyone adhearing to the part about saving back shells until you get home? ICH !! We would all have to carry body bags. :sad

Jack :smiled
 
Jack,
I really don't know how they were handling the regs. I wasn't watching them crab, I just saw the results on the dock. I'm not being critical of them. It was just interesting to me, because we always think that the fishing, crabbing, shrimping is better across the border. Maybe these folks had decided the opposite, that there were more crab on our side, or possibly they just liked Deer Harbor and wanted to set up camp there for the weekend.

I did see the end result, and they were getting a lot of crabs from somewhere in the vicinity.
Lyle
 
I wander if they were in their limits. 5 per day per person with two days in possession. jack is right. you have to pull your own pots or your own crab. at the very least you have to be on the boat pulling the pots not on another boat at the dock.

I will say that i saw a lot of big crab this year. lots in the 7 inch range or bigger.
 
Can't say I blame them for "Making Hay While The Sun Shines". I always try to make sure I justify the $100.00 I pay for my license up there. Largest crab I caught this summer was 8 3/4".

Jack :smiled
 
I watched an elderly male and a younger female on a 13' Boston Whaler off of Whidbey this past summer. I was soaking my TWO pots (I was alone) and they motored out from shore. I watched as he pulled SEVEN pots, sorted and re-baited. Now I know it's a two pot per person max in the regs. So I wondered where he and his campanion went to school? Seems their math skills were lacking. :evil: Really pissed me off since I was playing by the rules. Makes a guy wanna "accidentally" run over some floats w/ his boat. "Oops!" :embarrased
 
I have found that the biggest poachers around here are beach property owner. they crab from small skiffs and go right back to the beach. chances of them getting inspected is none. So they just do what they want. I have been invited to several beach parties where the owners brag about the 40 crab they caught that morning for the party. its a common but despicable thing. My yearly catch for both suasn and I was only 20 crab. I released about 80 to get those, lots of females.
 
Thomas,

That's interesting, I've found the same "Mind Set" in people that live beside a river..."The Rules" apply to everyone else. :roll:

Jack :smiled
 
starcrafttom":1xit00me said:
I have found that the biggest poachers around here are beach property owner. they crab from small skiffs and go right back to the beach. chances of them getting inspected is none. So they just do what they want.
Click to expand...

Oh, I guarantee that was the case here. I crabbed the same spot several times and even anchored for hours on end. I observed the same people, in the same Whaler, on at least three seperate occasions, doing exactly the same thing; MULTIPLE pots. They raped that area of crab. :thdown She drove and he pulled/sorted. Meredith was with me and it pissed her off too. The Whaler didn't even have reg numbers on it. Yet there I was, throwing males back that were a 1/4" too small.
 
WDFW Commission vote on Dungennes Crab policy


Today the WDFW Commission vote 7-2 to adopt Option A. The Commission made minor modifications to Option A to underscore the need for better reporting, enforcement and education effects to increase reporting.

This is the option that gives the recreational crab fisherman more of the Puget Sound crab allocation. What this means is that we will have longer seasons and more opportunity to harvest.

It is important to mention that the Department and Commission will be asking the recreational community and sportsfishing groups to step up with education efforts to improve reporting and compliance.
 
statement by the CCA

Today, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission voted to bring more fairness to the Puget Sound Dungeness fishery by adopting "Option A" for its new Puget Sound Crab policy. This long overdue policy change rightfully recognizes the importance of recreational crabbing in Puget Sound and provides a SIGNIFICANT increase in fishing opportunity for Puget Sound crabbers. The commission's decision increases equity in the crab allocation and is a victory for recreational crabbers.

This is a huge milestone for the recreational angling community and the citizens of Washington State. The new policy adopted by the Commission will provide a summer recreational season from July 1st to Labor Day open 5 days a week - including both weekend days. It will also provide a October - December winter recreational season open 7 days a week. Both seasons will employ a 5 crab daily bag limit. These changes are expected to increase the recreational share of Puget Sound crab harvests and will accommodate increases in recreational participation in the crab fishery in future years.

This was a hard fought battle with commercial interests lobbying hard against even a modest shift of a relatively small portion of the state crab harvest to recreational crabbers. Thanks to You – the members of CCA – and our partners, this meaningful change in recreational opportunity was possible. Through our membership and the active involvement of CCA leadership we were able to focus the Commission on the facts rather than the same old tired arguments. Through our Action Alert, CCA members sent hundreds of e-mails to the Commission allowing them to hear directly from us. Our members also made their voices heard when public comment on this issue was taken by the Commission in Olympia. We also enjoyed positive media coverage of this issue and our efforts.

This is not our victory alone though. We worked with several other groups and many individuals, all of whom played a critical role in this victory. We also enjoyed the support of elected officials, including 10 legislators who recently wrote a letter to the Commission in support of the change. Finally, a large majority of the Commission took a strong and courageous stand for fairness in the face of profanity and other intimidation tactics.

This is a great example of working together, focusing on the facts and carrying out a strategic plan to achieve a great outcome for recreational anglers. A sign of great things to come!
Click to expand...
 
Now I'll probably start crabbing again. I quit crabbing a few years ago when it became so restrictive. It just wasn't worth it to me to mess around with such few available days.
Years ago, I used to hunt until they kept restricting the regs. Probably why there are so many bear around the neighborhood now... :wink .
 
WDFW NEWS RELEASE
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091
http://wdfw.wa.gov/

October 1, 2010

Contacts: (Commission) Susan Yeager, (360) 902-2267
(Crab policy) Rich Childers, (360) 796-4601

Commission approves new policy
for Puget Sound crab fisheries

Well done !!
OLYMPIA - The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission today approved changes in its policy for managing Dungeness crab in Puget Sound that could increase sport crabbers’ annual catch by 40 percent.

The new policy, adopted on a voice vote, eliminates current catch quotas for the popular sport fishery and instead establishes a fixed season for recreational crab fishing in Puget Sound.

Once adopted as a state regulation, that model will allow sport crabbers to fish for Dungeness crab five days a week - including weekends - from July through Labor Day, with a five-crab daily limit. A winter season would run seven days a week from October through December.

Current regulations limit the summer sport crabbing season in most of Puget Sound to four days per week, including Saturdays but not Sundays.

"This has been coming for a long time," said Miranda Wecker, who chairs the nine-member commission that sets policy for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). "The number of sport crabbers has grown dramatically in recent years, and Puget Sound is - by far - the most popular place to fish."

Approximately 220,000 people purchased license endorsements to fish for Dungeness crab in Puget Sound this year, said Rich Childers, WDFW Puget Sound shellfish manager. Five years ago, just 160,000 people were licensed to fish for crab in the Sound.

The State Auditor’s Office, in a report issued earlier this year, found that the state’s policy for allocating the harvest would not accommodate the continued growth in the number of Puget Sound sport crabbers.

The commission’s action to expand fishing opportunities for sport crabbers will likely reduce the amount of Dungeness crab available for harvest by the state-managed commercial fishery in the Sound. Commercial fishers, who currently account for approximately 67 percent of the crab caught by non-tribal fishers, could see their share drop to 55 percent under the new policy, Childers said.

Tribal fisheries are not affected by the new policy, although all Dungeness crab fisheries in Puget Sound are managed under a single quota that reflects shared conservation goals.

Now that the new policy has been adopted, the commission must still officially change state fishing regulations for it to affect future fishing seasons. The commission is scheduled to hold public hearings on those rules in December and consider final adoption in February.

In approving the new policy, commissioners emphasized the importance of vigilant enforcement strategies, public information and annual reporting by WDFW to ensure that it meets its statutory obligation to conduct "orderly fisheries."

To support those efforts, the commission authorized WDFW to seek legislative approval to increase fees on recreational license endorsements for Puget Sound crabbing. With the commission’s approval, WDFW will seek to increase the annual crab endorsement fee, currently $3, to $7.50. For temporary licenses, the endorsement would increase from $1 to $3.

On the second day of its two-day meeting is Olympia, the commission has scheduled public hearing to discuss possible restrictions on the use of lead fishing tackle at 13 lakes with nesting loons.

As part of that discussion, the commission will review the findings of a WDFW advisory group established to assess scientific studies on risks posed to loons that ingest lead fishing tackle and recommend ways to minimize those risks.

The commission will continue to accept written comments on banning the use of lead weights on the 13 lakes through Nov. 19. Comments may be submitted to WDFW Rules Coordinator Lori Preuss at Lori.Preuss@dfw.wa.gov or 600 Capitol Way N., Olympia, WA, 98501.

The commission will convene for the second day of its meeting at 9 a.m. Oct. 2 on the first floor of the Natural Resources Building in Olympia at 1111 Washington St. S.E. A complete agenda for the meeting is available on the WDFW website at http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/meetings/2010/ .


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