November 4 Olympia Meeting

Plus1 · Nov-03-2009, 12:25 PM

Everyone, these meetings are very important.

The rockfish closures could very well eliminate opportunity to fish for salmon, ling, halibut, crab, shrimp.
Your presence makes a big difference.
A big mistake to assume that someone else will represent your interests.

7-9 p.m. in Olympia, Washington
Room 172 of the Natural Resources Building
1111 Washington St. S.E

Ducttape · Nov-03-2009, 02:56 PM

right on Gary. Let'm all know whats goin on man.

Plus1 · Nov-07-2009, 10:55 AM

It was a challenging drive from Everett to Olympia, traffic was very heavy going through Seattle and Tacoma between 5:00 and 6:00. I arrived at the Natural Resources building a bit late - hung around until someone let me in. WDFW also posted a phone number to call if the door was locked.

I did not get an accurate head count - I estimate more than 50 people in attendance, many more than the Mill Creek meeting.

I recognized a few people in the audience, not surprisingly Sam Wright (aka ESA petitioner to list PS rockfish) was there, sitting next to Larry. I was hoping Sam would give public comment to better understand his views, but none was provided. Too bad, public comment is valuable to understand all sides of issues that impact everyone... nuff said.

Good question and answer period, I did not take notes and will not try to rewrite from memory.

Public comment was provided by;
Sport fishermen on their own behalf
CCA - several that I recall
PSA and other sportfish groups (that are new to me)
People for Puget Sound
Wildfish Conservancy
Divers (one from California seemed to be lobying for dive preserves to protect fish from sport fishermen)

In my opinion, the public comments provided in this meeting were excellent in scope and depth. Almost everyone requested more time for written comments since this plan is very complicated and will have far reaching and long lasting impact to Puget Sound and State of Washington.

Just thinking, it would be really helpful to have transcripts from the meetings to help with the written recommendations... Maybe a few folks can help with this request ?

Thanks to everyone that participated in any way to represent sport fishing interests in this process.

If you read this please write a letter to WDFW before the comment period closes - still much work to get done!