Winter Crab Season

[8balls]

Originally Posted by Pipe Dream

So 236,000 Puget Sound CRC holders continue to be constrained to 1/3 of the non-tribal allocation while approximately 225-250 Puget Sound commercial license holders get the other 2/3. I understand and support having both Saturday and Sunday open for working folks (I've done my duty, thank you very much) but to then couple that idea with a reduction in daily limit from 5 to 4 is another slap. Worse yet, Staff did not even provide alternatives to the Commission for their consideration.

Good rant. I'm just confirming...they went to 7 days a week, but stayed at 5 limit for this opener, correct? I'm not seeing the 4 limit anywhere, but I know the idea is still out there. thx/Cheers

[Pipe Dream]

RS:

I checked my hard copy of the regs and nothing there about winter seasons. However, the 27 Oct WDFW News Release has those areas that are opening available seven days a week:

"Starting Nov. 1 at sunrise, Marine Area 10 (Seattle/Bremerton), and most of Marine Area 9 (Admiralty Inlet) will reopen for sport crabbing seven days a week through Jan. 2, 2010. The portion of Marine Area 9 south of a line from Foulweather Bluff to Olele Point will remain closed for the season."


Also pulled from that release is:


"We want to give crabbers as much opportunity to fish as possible, but with great weather this summer, we had a lot of people out crabbing and catch rates were high," Childers said.



Rich Childers is the Shellfish Policy Lead and is the guy responsible for the proposed trade off of a full week-end for a reduction in catch from 5 to 4 (but without ANY alternative/suggestion to the Commission that they consider a shift in the non-tribal quota toward sports crabbers.) Yup, just trying to keep it within that recreational catch quota! Anyone remember the very patronizing comments last year about what a wonderful job we were doing in staying within our quota? I almost went into spasms - laughing and wanting to puke at the same time.


Here was my e-mail input regarding proposed Change 13:




No to this proposed change as presented by Staff!

Staff seeks support saying that the two continuous week-end days has been requested by the public. I am sure that the public has made such a request and, in fact, the public was against the initial establishment of a four day week which did not cover the week-end. I doubt that the public came out offering to cut the daily limit in order to achieve their request to shift to a full week-end. I am certainly not in support of this “give with one hand, take with the other” management approach.

The ongoing underlying issue is one of allocation between over 236,000 Puget Sound Catch Record Card holders (2009) and the approximately 250 non-tribal crabbers holding licenses to crab in Puget Sound. Staff refuses to provide the Commission with alternatives that include shifting allocation saying allocation is a policy issue.

Several years ago at a Commission meeting a Commissioner asked Dr. Koenigs, then Director, how WDFW had established the existing split of the non-tribal portion of available Puget Sound crab as 1/3 to sport and 2/3 to non-tribal commercial crabbers. After a short consultation with his Staff the response was that in the aftermath of the Rafeedie decision WDFW had to quickly come up with a split and it was their best estimate of the historical catch between the two groups.

When sportsmen initiated and lobbied the legislature for what is now the $3.00 CRC in order to obtain good crab catch data the expectation was that such data would be used to support changes to the allocation. Before that program was able to generate valid data the season (both total length and days/week) were reduced as was the daily limit.

Now the CRC is producing sufficient valid data to reliably document how many crab the increasing number of sport crabbers are catching. I believe that the math would show that the 1/3 of the non-tribal catch split between 236,000 Puget Sound sport crabbers would result in about one limit of 5 crab per Puget Sound sport crabber.

So, here we are with Staff supporting a four day a week fishery to include both week-end days but not even suggesting that any resulting increase in total catch (exceeding the current allocation) could be achieved by a shift in the allocation.

That failure to provide alternatives to the Commission is unacceptable and we need to change that paradigm.

I request that the Commission consider the shift to include the whole week-end only in conjunction with a shift in allocation to “pay” for any total increase in sport crab catch.



Sorry RS, way more than you asked. It was when they pushed the reduction from 6 to 5 daily (without any "reliable" catch data, by the way) they were trying to juggle catch rates and were playing with how many days and which days. That is the timeframe for when I believe they would have preferred to cut it to 4 daily. No doubt that would have made their "keeping within the quotas" messages very sweet!


As a final note, the WDFW is legislatively mandated to maintain a viable sport and commercial fishery. Point 1 - Tribal harvest is virtually all commercial and virtually all of that is in P.S. Point 2 - The coastal sport crab harvest is virtually nil compared to the commercial harvest. Nothing says that WDFW cannot place commercial emphasis on the coast and sport emphasis in P.S. where (shock!!) most of the recreational crabbers can easily and safely crab. In P.S. we sport crabbers are allocated roughly 16% of the total number of crab available each year for harvest. Doing the math that works out to about one limit of 5 crab per CRC holder. Wonderful.



All for now.


Pipe Dream

[Grady226]

Did anyone else find large amounts of soft shell crab during the summer opener?

Last winter I dropped pots in Useless bay while BM fishing and didn't pull a single crab. I left the pots home after that.

[8balls]

Thx Larry, I read in the release it was still 5, just making sure you weren't seeing something I wasn't.

Grady, I pulled a lot of soft shells around the area 10 opener and a handful in the area 7 opener (though not as many). A friend of mine also dropped 4 pots in Useless this summer while fishing and came up empty. I have not crabbed there in years myself.

I also haven't crabbed 9/10 since early summer, the week of the opener. I have no idea where I would set righ tnow. Not expecting much this Winter, but we'll see. From where I notice the most tribal pots, I'm guessing the entire Kingston side is toast.

[FASTWATER]

snuck out today for a soak/ 3 hours 8 crab 4 pots not bad not great but did not see any commie's area 10!!!PEACE

[moonedo]

Hey Don. Where did you go? Trying to get Hammill to go out next week.

[Bigger Fish]

Originally Posted by RosarioStrait

Thx Larry, I read in the release it was still 5, just making sure you weren't seeing something I wasn't.

Grady, I pulled a lot of soft shells around the area 10 opener and a handful in the area 7 opener (though not as many). A friend of mine also dropped 4 pots in Useless this summer while fishing and came up empty. I have not crabbed there in years myself.

I also haven't crabbed 9/10 since early summer, the week of the opener. I have no idea where I would set righ tnow. Not expecting much this Winter, but we'll see. From where I notice the most tribal pots, I'm guessing the entire Kingston side is toast.

Well, glad to see "Mr. Giddyup" has something to contribute to this fine forum. It took you long enough...

For you BD fellas that contribute a little more than most, Mr. Rosario Strait (aka "Sir Lurkalot") fishes more than anyone I know, due to the fact he lives his life off his Crackberry, and on his fine fish killin' machine...

And since we're not on the much-moderated and filtered PSA website: Jimbo...dude...is that as creative a fucking handle you can come up with? Rosario Strait??? Or is that gay code for "bring me the corn cob"???

Light him up, boys, for his lack of contributions to this forum, and the most mundane handle on this website...

[Cornfed]

BD RULES: NO Slander

[8balls]

Dad...I'm telling you for the last time. You've got to quit drinking at work.




Um...Tommy...can I change my name, please?

[Cornfed]

Originally Posted by RosarioStrait

Um...Tommy...can I change my name, please?

PM sent.

[Quan]

Hmm... I never really thought about winter crabbing. I did not know MA 13 was open year round. The majority of my family lives in Tacoma and that is where I spend the holidays. Maybe if I catch them enough holiday crab, they'll feel like they owe me and buy me my electric Scotties for Christmas!

That said... anyone have any advice crabbing MA13? Good spots? I have no idea where to start or if it is even worth it. I have been looking at the topo maps but that only gets you so far. I am an avid MA7 crabber and would be willing to give up some of my hot spots up here in exchange. =)

Come to think of it... I don't often see MA13 reports. How is the general fishery down there anyway?

[Bigger Fish]

Originally Posted by Cornfed

BD RULES: NO Slander

Rules? We have rules??