HB 2579 "Give Fish a Chance Act" New Mineral/Prospecting Permit Created

[bigtex]

I was in attendance at a fishing group meeting last night and have viewed several fishing message boards.

Widespread support for this legislation is what I am seeing. According to many this is overdue legislation and many believe WA is the least regulated state on the west coast and BC when it comes to this type of mineral prospecting.

Times may be a changing....

[Special T]

IMO its complete BS. A hand trowl and a pan do NO damage to a creek. It is obviouse that this has less to do with reality that making fishermen feel good.

CANADIANS  DRIVE up thier creek and river beads on a regular basis and its NORMAL! Yes there are closures for that at certain times of the year...

The old argument was if you used motorized equiptment you had to get a permit... now a shovel pan rocker box... 

[bigtex]

Representative Pollet (D) has added his name as a sponsor.

[buckfvr]

You got a dime   State of Washington wants it.......any way they can get it, they want your last dime even if it means you are flat broke with no hope of replacing that dime.

This time of the year in Olympia, theres only one mission........take money.  Eventually this state will literally want to be paid for the air you breath and the space you take up physically as a human.

Id think before they write all these new laws they introduce each year, they would have to delete all the bogus and out dated laws of past sessions.

Government is synonymous with corruption.........cant have one with out the other.

[snowpack]

I was in attendance at a fishing group meeting last night and have viewed several fishing message boards.

Widespread support for this legislation is what I am seeing. According to many this is overdue legislation and many believe WA is the least regulated state on the west coast and BC when it comes to this type of mineral prospecting.

Times may be a changing....

I haven't seen much widespread support on the fishing boards.  Many are rather skeptical and want to see some kind of evidence that suction dredging is actually a problem.  The only boards it seems that are widespread support are flyfishing, but they usually always advocate to get ALL OTHER user groups off the rivers.

[bigtex]

The thing I have seen so far from the "fish community" is nobody cares about the $150 mining/prospecting permit.

They are all loving the suction dredging part.

[bigtex]

I was in attendance at a fishing group meeting last night and have viewed several fishing message boards.

Widespread support for this legislation is what I am seeing. According to many this is overdue legislation and many believe WA is the least regulated state on the west coast and BC when it comes to this type of mineral prospecting.

Times may be a changing....

I haven't seen much widespread support on the fishing boards.  Many are rather skeptical and want to see some kind of evidence that suction dredging is actually a problem.  The only boards it seems that are widespread support are flyfishing, but they usually always advocate to get ALL OTHER user groups off the rivers.

Apparently we look at different fishing boards  . But I do agree with you in regards to the fly guys.

[Special T]

Lets see if we want more fish what ares some things that woould have a bigger impact. Increase the harvest of mergansers, otters, squaw fish, all of which are currenlty legal to take. Push for the harvest of Cornmerants, Blue herrons & sealions there are no real shortages of those and the federal protections of those are outdated by a long shot.

Predator control can do more and has an imediate impact on fish.

But then again its hard to use water/fish as a way to control people if you actually do something about it.

[wapiti hunter2]

How do the "fly guys" feel about HR 2143 Genetically Engineered Fish?

[Heredoggydoggy]

Has the Bill made it out of Committee yet?  Most bills don't.     In this State, whatever the "do-gooders" want, the "do-gooders" get! 

[dreamunelk]

Opposed!
There was a lot of thought and research conducted by the WDFW to set the current rules. 

No need for a $150.00 permit.

Really have to wonder where this bill came from.   

[snowpack]

How do the "fly guys" feel about HR 2143 Genetically Engineered Fish?

From their discussion boards, I don't recall seeing a single member in favor of GE/GM fish (heck, they don't even like hatchery fish that are the same fish they do like).  There were discussions on the modified salmon not all that long ago, but I haven't seen many directly mentioning the bill.   I can't say any of the fishing boards (fly or other) showed any support for modified fish being released or even in a position of accidental release.

Bigtex, does WDFW even encounter significant numbers of dredges working the rivers in Western WA?  I can't recall seeing any, but where I go most of the gold is on national park land so off limits anyways.
Just kind of wonder if having 50-100 driftboats a day dragging anchors through gravel has a cumulative affect greater than the few dredges that might be out operating.  Kind of like how handguns are used in over 90% of murders, but people think rifles are the problem.

[bigtex]

My question is if this bill were to be adopted and put into law where would the money generated from the permit sales go?  To fish and wildlife or the general fund??

Under the current bill there is no specification. All other current laws regarding fish and wildlife fees have some type of defined account they go into for WDFW. For example, the fee for obtaining a hydraulic project approval goes into an account funding the hydraulic project program.

The financial information for this bill has been released. The funds from the fee would go into the WDFW hydraulic project account.

The state believes there are approximately 2,000 people prospect using the Gold & Fish pamphlet as their permit. WDFW has issued 300 beach prospecting permits per year. And about 150 HPA permits are issued for prospecting that goes beyond the scope of the Gold & Fish Pamphlet. If these numbers stay constant the WDFW would receive $367,500 per year as a result of the fee.

[bigtex]

Has the Bill made it out of Committee yet?  Most bills don't.     In this State, whatever the "do-gooders" want, the "do-gooders" get! 

Bill hasn't even had a hearing yet.

[Special T]

Lets hope it doesnt even get a hearing. I have done a little panning with a small shovel and a pan just taking my kid out to the creek. I can tell you that if i have to purchase a permit i won't be going. Istill think that hand methods should be excempt from a $ permit... So far i only have acouple of flakes for my  several trips out with the kids.