No more fishing rules in Snohomish county.

[Practical Approach]

http://www.king5.com/story/news/local/2014/08/27/prosecutors-refuse-to-file-charges-for-minor-crimes/14713483/


Hope this doesn't catch fire.

[NRA4LIFE]

I saw that last night.  Great.  They showed people crabbing on a Tuesday and the woman looked like she had no clue it was illegal.  Really?  Crabbing has been closed on Tuesdays for how many years?  That's all we need up there is more illegal crabbing.

[CP]

Wow!  Why did I throw back all those native Kings?

[Blacktail Sniper]

It sounds like it is still going to be enforced according the article:

"Prosecutors said the decision was made because the State legislature decriminalized minor fishing violations. They said instead of prosecuting misdemeanor crimes, they requested Fish & Wildlife officers write infractions that carry fines but no criminal prosecution."

[X-Force]

Everything will still be enforced through fines but you wont have a criminal record for having a barbed hook... They will still fine you and if you retain an endangered species ie Wild King... you will still get prosecuted. 

[snowpack]

If it spreads too much I can have a season 'in common with'!   

[RG]

The prosecutor's office isn't saying it's OK to do what you want they just said the unlawful sport fishing second degree or whatever it's actually called, is now an infraction not a criminal offense.  It's more likely that the penalty will stick this way anyway because the prosecutor doesn't have to get involved.  The violator gets an infraction ticket with a monetary penalty just like a traffic ticket.  When a misdemeanor gets sent to the prosecutor it ends up in the big pile on his desk behind more serious misdemeanors like DUI, Domestic Violence, theft 3, etc. and will likely get declined due to lack of manpower.  This will increase the likelihood of the actual penalty happening to the violator.

[Dhoey07]

They just want the money, break the law, they catch you, write the check

[RG]

They just want the money, break the law, they catch you, write the check

That's pretty much how things work alright.

[luvmystang67]

So now, you can BUY native kings.

Sweet.

[CP]

Poaching is becoming cost effective. 

[luvmystang67]

Poaching is becoming cost effective.

I actually feel like if you did a statistical analysis of the chances of being checked, versus the cost of licenses and success rates during the appropriate seasons that you might have found some time ago that this was true.

Dang morals are holding us back from making cost effective decisions.

[X-Force]

So now, you can BUY native kings.

Sweet.

that's not how this works... if you keep a king on the endangered or possibly even the threatened species list they will still come after you with more than a fine.

[Dhoey07]

So now, you can BUY native kings.

Sweet.

that's not how this works... if you keep a king on the endangered or possibly even the threatened species list they will still come after you with more than a fine.

Maybe......

[bigtex]

This is another result of the 2012 change by the WA Supreme Court to ban "bail forfeitures" (fines) for criminal offenses. As a result everybody fish and wildlife violator who violated a criminal offense needs to go before a judge, be arraigned, etc.

What WDFW needs to do is look further into laws/regulations and see which offenses truely impact the resource. In 2012 WDFW requested and the legislature approved the decriminalization of 15 fish and wildlife offenses, which essentially means that those 15 offenses can be handled by a ticket with a fine, and not going to court.

Here are some examples of how current law stands regarding fishing violations:
-Do not own a license = court date
-Own a license, but it's not on you and you don't have fish= ticket with fine
-Own a license, but it's not on you and you DO have fish= court date
-Fished in an area with artificial lure requirement with lures violating that requirement while not possessing fish= ticket with fine
-Fished in an area with artificial lure requirement with lures violating that requirement while possessing fish= court date

Does somebody who does not have a license, whether not purchasing it or not having it on them really need to go before a judge? Or can they simply pay a fine on a ticket?

I personally think WDFW should look at decriminalizing offenses that do not impact the resource in terms of actual possession. Keep all of the out of season possession, overlimits, size limits, etc as criminal offenses. But the lure violations, license violations, etc can be decriminalized