New policy for Puget Sound crab

[Dave]

October 01, 2010
Contact: (Commission) Susan Yeager, (360) 902-2267
(Crab policy) Rich Childers, (360) 796-4601

Commission approves new policy for Puget Sound crab fisheries

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. GO FIGURE!!!!!

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.


I'm not sure how this will all turn out but I hope to see future winter seasons open in all areas including 8-1 and 8-2 which to my recollection have never been open in the winter. It might also be a little nicer to be able to crab anytime vs select days of the week and half the weekend.

[Pradeep]

As nice as that would be also comes the concern of more tribal crabbing and people crabbing all year round could, over time increase the amount of time you have to stay on the water to get your limit because of over harvesting right?

[The Quadfather]

Yes, it's hard to know what effect this will have on the crab population. From what I took from the article it sounds like the same July1--- labor day weekend season... the only change being 7 days a week. It is hard sometimes not to want to immediatly be in favor of things that serve (me). I have always hated the Wed-Sat. schedule because it makes it hard for anybody with a job to make the most of the open time to crab. I would love to be out there now on Sunday or any other day. If it goes through hopefully they will careful to do sampling or counts etc. and see that it doesn't effect the overall population too much.
I have to go back and read if it said the Winter season would be come a standard? It was always based on the numbers of crabs taken during the summer, hit and miss.

Thanks for that info. Dave.

[flinginpooh]

Adding 7 day a week crabbing will put more pressure from the average person out there, allowing us to take more crab. But they also said there going to cut commercial crabbing by 12% Thats a huge number. Its gonna possibly bring up the price of crab at the local market but really who buys crab from a store anyhow? Well ok I dont buy crab, but I do get oysters from local places like bradys and hunter farms oysters are good too.

[Dave]

I think that because the commercial crab fishermen will be taking less crab, the amount of time it takes to get a limit of crab will remain the same. If you know where to set your gear, limits usually come quickly. The key to quick limits is finding that spot where the Tribe and Commercial crabbers haven't fished. The nice thing about the season being open 7 days a week will be that people can go on their days off. This may actually reduce the typical Saturday zoo of people trying to get a limit of crab on any given Saturday. I believe the two seasons (summer and winter) will remain the same so it won't be open year round for the sport crabbers.

[BentRod]

Here's a recent article on the subject:
Seattle PI article on change to commercial crabbing rules.