Tribal PDA Exemption Bill Swapped For Fish, Shellfish Task Force

[jackelope]

http://nwsportsmanmag.com/headlines/tribal-pda-exemption-bill-swapped-for-fish-shellfish-task-force/

An interesting end this afternoon at the final Senate Natural Resources and Parks meeting before the cutoff to get legislation out of policy committees in Olympia.

A bill that would have exempted certain information about tribal fishermen from Public Disclosure Act requests was, well, gillnetted and then gutted by the committee chair in favor of his amendment to set up a task force to look at related issues instead.

[CP]

McCoy is really a slimy POS.  I'd love to see him voted out or retired

[jackelope]

McCoy is really a slimy POS.  I'd love to see him voted out or retired

Agreed.

[Skillet]

Holy cow, that is some garbage legislation from my Wa State senator.  Clearly advocating for a lack of accountability and hide-the-ball co-management of the resource.  How does that guy walk?  Email to him will be sent as soon as I am able, with a cc: thanking Pearson for minding the store on behalf of the non-tribal interests.

Thanks for the heads-up Jackelope.

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

 

[pd]

McCoy is really a slimy POS.  I'd love to see him voted out or retired

No.  John McCoy is simply doing his job.  He is a decent man, and it isn't fair to denigrate him with such harsh words.

Tribal interests will always take issue with public disclosure of individual fish tickets.  Remember, the treaty tribes have a lock-solid right to harvest these resources (whether you agree with the treaties and the Boldt decision or not is another story). Of course the treaty tribes would ask for this type of exemption, and Sen. McCoy (representing his district, but also his own tribe) was the right person to ask for this change.  I don't fault him at all for what he attempted to do, and I doubt that Chairman Pearson finds fault with this action, either.

On the other hand, Sen. Pearson did the public a favor.  Although "legislative task forces" can be a colossal waste of time, this is a step in the right direction.

[Taco280AI]

It's 2017, when will everyone play by the same set of rules? Or if they want traditional rights, they should be required to use traditional methods and equipment (hand made).

[Whitpirate]

When they can show they are truly co-managing the resource and not actively pressing advantage to the detriment of the resource and the state I'll look to cut them some slack.  When the Tulalip's own enforcement officers are implicated in resource violations it proves they need to have questions asked.

[hunthard]

Well said White Pirate

[lokidog]

When they can show they are truly co-managing the resource and not actively pressing advantage to the detriment of the resource and the state I'll look to cut them some slack.  When the Tulalip's own enforcement officers are implicated in resource violations it proves they need to have questions asked.

 

[The scout]

GREED! It won't end untill something drastic happens. I really hope they piss trump off. They have zero respect for any resource

[Skillet]

McCoy is really a slimy POS.  I'd love to see him voted out or retired

Tribal interests will always take issue with public disclosure of individual fish tickets.  Remember, the treaty tribes have a lock-solid right to harvest these resources (whether you agree with the treaties and the Boldt decision or not is another story). Of course the treaty tribes would ask for this type of exemption, and Sen. McCoy (representing his district, but also his own tribe) was the right person to ask for this change.  I don't fault him at all for what he attempted to do, and I doubt that Chairman Pearson finds fault with this action, either.

I disagree on most of your points here.  The tribes have a rock solid right to harvest HALF of the agreed upon allowable catch, which is arrived at through co-management.  Clearly, the tribes are looking for an opportunity game the system by pushing for reduced accountability here.  To what end would this move serve, other than to avoid criticism for over harvest? 

This is a blatant attempt by a politician that has been bought and paid for by the Tulalip Tribe to continue to steal from the non-tribal fisherman with impunity.  This is the tribe, who as Whitpirate points out, has a systemic lack of integrity when it comes to harvesting shared resources to begin with.

It is disgusting, and I commend Senator Pearson for working against McCoy's shenanigans.

[Tbar]

What's crazy is we are fighting over the scraps!  The majority of our (puget sound)  fish are being caught either by high seas drift nets or by Alaska fisheries before they get here.

[WSU]

Agreed. That's the real fight.

[pd]

Skillet, all of the treaty tribes belong to (jointly form) the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (NWIFC), which tabulates all of the fish tickets, by species, by date, by catch area, etc.  This data forms the objective basis for co-managment of the resource.  What the tribes probably (my speculation) object to is the disclosure of individual fish tickets, and they have a point: If the summary data is sufficient for co-management purposes, what need is there to expose the personal details of each harvester?  Remember, state law would not apply to treaty tribe actions, so the point is probably moot anyway.

There is a bigger question, and this revolves around the reliability of the data from each tribe (not just the accuracy of the data, but the timeliness of submission).  I concede that this question is very important, but there is no way to press the issue until the federal government decides to take the lead on the issue (with the new administration, this could happen).

My point was bigger than this.  Sen. McCoy is a good man, and it is not appropriate to denigrate him for doing his job.  Sen. Pearson is also a good man, and he also did his job.  Win-win.