The first rendition of the newly revised allocation system governing non-treaty crabbing in Puget Sound has concluded.
But it remains to be seen what will go in the books.
Personal use gatherers of Dungeness crab now have a month to self-report their late or 'winter' season catches.
Given that a lawsuit could yet undo the fish and wildlife commission's 2011 shifting of more of the Puget Sound non-treaty Dungeness share to the sport or personal use side, the recreational fishing community's compliance - or the lack of it - with the mandatory reporting rule is ever-more important.
Unfortunately, the sport fisher reporting performance at the close of the summer crabbing season only served to bolster the arguments of both Puget Sound treaty tribes and non-treaty commercial fishers that the expanded sport crab fishery cannot be effectively managed by the state to meet conservation and catch-sharing mandates.
Only 52 percent of the total number of 2011 Puget Sound Crab Endorsement summer catch record card holders met their legal obligations. That is only marginally better than the 2010 compliance rate.
Shellfish managers are concerned that the second or 'winter' 2011 reporting may show a similar lack of improvement and only fuel the assertions that Washington sport fishers are unworthy of the privilege of harvesting an increased share of Dungeness crab.
WHO AND WHAT NEEDS REPORTING
Not everyone holding a 2011 PSCE needs to file on this go-around.
Puget Sound crabbers who did not request or take a 'winter' catch record card are relieved of the responsibility.
But it does fall on the shoulders of everyone, even short-term (1-3 day) endorsement holders, who were issued a 2011 winter crab catch record card, to make their report.
The focus of this exercise is three-fold. The department needs to hear from 'winter' catch record card holders who:
? caught and kept Dungeness crabs for personal use from Sept. 6 to Dec. 31. Summer catches before Sept. 6, even previously unreported ones, don't count, won't be of help and shouldn't be included.
? fished from Sept. 6 to Dec. 31, but did not catch any Dungeness crab.
? did not at all fish for Dungeness crab between Sept. 6 and Dec. 31.
Managers assure that the contingent of card holders with "zero" harvest or effort are equally as important to the accurate calculation of the total sport catch as those who did take home crab.
HERE'S HOW TO TELL ALL
Beginning today, there are two ways to file these mandatory reports.
The first option is to physically dispatch the hard-copy "winter" card by mail to department's Olympia headquarters.
The mailing address is: Catch Record Card (CRC) Unit, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, 600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091.
To be street legal, the CRC bearing envelopes must be postmarked no later than the first of February.
Option two is the more convenient and requires cardholders to go on line through a secure Internet portal to the department's crab catch reporting Webpage and answer a few, quick questions.
That portal is up and operating as of today and will remain open until midnight Saturday, Feb. 1. Log on at fishhunt.dfw.wa.gov/wdfw/puget_sound_crab_catch.html.
In addition to the serial number at the top of the winter CRC document, the numbers of Dungeness crab you caught, the dates and the marine area(s) from which they came, you'll also need to give your birth date to file.
Anyone not filing in time will go onto the state's equivalent of a long-remembered DUNS list and will have to pay an extra $10 for their next Puget Sound Crab Endorsement.
ALL-FALL PERMITS MAY EXPAND
The future issuance of Washington deer and elk multi-season hunting permits would be boosted under a proposal that will be presented to fish and wildlife commissioners at their regular January session next week.
First offered several years ago and allocated by annual random drawings, these special permits entitle bearers to hunt every general (open entry) hunting season in a given year from the first of September to the end of December for either deer or elk, provided the hunters use the weaponry type (modern firearm, muzzleloader and archery) legal for each season.
The current yearly allocation is 4,000 permits for deer and 850 permits for elk.
Under consideration is a recommendation to more than double the number of multi-season deer permits to 8,500 and boost numbers of the elk version to 1,250, annually.
An assessment of the impact of these increases on deer and elk herds has been done and state wildlife managers say the additional hunting opportunity will not adversely affect wildlife populations.
Each year, permit seekers must submit individual entries to both drawings. Each drawing application costs $6.50 and administrators have earmarked the anticipated revenue spike to augment the department's initiative to stem deer and elk damage on private lands thereby lowering monetary payouts for claims.
Besides saving money, another benefit of this program is the reducing of the need for out-of-season removal of offending animals, maintaining the numbers of big game for hunters.
The formal administrative comment period for this proposal is past, but the commission will take testimony at 1 p.m. of the Friday, Jan. 6, session in Olympia.
The proposal will be up for adoption during the commission's February meeting, so if you can't get to Olympia next Friday but want to urge commissioners to a particular action when they consider the proposal in February, send them an e-mail at commission@dfw.wa.gov no later than mid-January.
OKANOGAN STREAMS CLOSING
Steelhead and whitefish angling in a number of North Central Washington streams will shutdown, at least temporarily, immediately after New Years Day.
With wild steelhead incidental mortality estimated to be reaching its maximum allowable extent in these stream reaches, the following will close to the taking of steelhead Monday, Jan. 2:
? Columbia River: between Rock Island and Chief Joseph dams.
? Wenatchee River: from its mouth to the Icicle Road Bridge and including the lower Icicle River.
? Entiat River: from the Alternate Highway 97 Bridge to the Entiat National Fish Hatchery.
? Methow River: from its mouth to the Chewuck River.
Also to protect native summer steelhead, whitefish angling will end Monday, Jan. 2 in the following north central stream reaches:
? Wenatchee River: from its mouth to the Highway 2 Bridge at Leavenworth.
? Entiat River: from the Alternate Highway 97 Bridge to the Entiat National Fish Hatchery.
? Methow River: from Gold Creek to the falls above Brush Creek.
This action, say managers, is necessitated by 2011's relatively small overall steelhead run that has comingled with its hatchery-origin component, a larger-than-usual contingent of federally protected wild fish.
Besides this, managers note that angling pressure has remained fairly constant since the fall opening contributing to an increased angler encounter rate with the wild fish.
Given this mix of numbers, managers are going to exercise an abundance of caution and shutdown angling activities. However, during this hiatus, they will review run-size numbers and angler interaction estimates to determine if options exist under the terms of the state's ESA-permit to reopen later this winter any of these streams.
Hatchery fish production is meant, in part, to sustain a personal use fishery that stimulates the region's rural economy.
Fisheries are structured to remove as many hatchery fish from the wild as possible while avoiding impairment of the federally mandated recovery of wild fish populations.
Besides the region's regular winter whitefish openings that are not affected by these emergency closings, several Okanogan stream reaches also will stay open, until further notice, to steelheading. They are the:
? Okanogan River: from its mouth to the Highway 97 Bridge at Oroville.
? Similkameen River: from its mouth to a point 400 feet below Enloe Dam.
Steelhead fishing in these waters is additionally governed by selective gear and night closure rules.
Anglers must keep and kill every adipose-fin clipped steelhead they bring to hand and must stop fishing each day when they put two hatchery fish in the creel. All kept steelhead must be documented on a catch record card.
Whitefish fisheries are found in the permanent regulations detailed in the Fishing in Washington pamphlet.
When fishing these and many other designated Columbia Basin streams, fishers must have in their possession an $8.75 Columbia River Salmon/Steelhead Endorsement, the proceeds from which pay for the monitoring and enforcement that enables these fisheries to take place.
Doug Huddle, the Bellingham Herald's outdoors correspondent, since 1983 has written a weekly fishing and hunting column that now appears Sundays. Read his blog and contact him at http://pblogs.bellinghamherald.com/outdoors/.
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