Is WDFW insane/run by idiots?

[pianoman9701]

Pianoman, that's my point, why allow any fishing there if they are worried about catcing the endangered ones, that is where most live?

I don't think the line is new, it is the same 30 fathom line they have had for years.  What species of suspended rockfish exactly are they targeting in these depths?  Even black rockfish tend toward the bottom and areas with structure. 

Another question, why is it OK to shut off all rockfish in the Sound to protect these same fish that they allow to be incidentally killed off the coast?  Answer again, money!  There are no cattle boats that I know of that targeted rockfish in the Sound so their lobby would not care about it being shut down in the Sound where most of us, that just want to feed some fish to our families, have access.

No idea how to answer that Loki. I'm just reporting what I was told by Heather Reed, (360) 249-4628 ext. 202. Maybe call her. She's nice and forthcoming with information.

[LeeMajors]

The open area is ALL of Areas 1 and 2 outside the 30 fathom line.

The closure area is relatively small, and right outside of Westport.  (relative to the open area)

Seems to me, there is a problem with charters and others heavily targetting that particular area.

[sirmissalot]

The open area is ALL of Areas 1 and 2 outside the 30 fathom line.

The closure area is relatively small, and right outside of Westport.  (relative to the open area)

This is incorrect

[LeeMajors]

The open area is ALL of Areas 1 and 2 outside the 30 fathom line.

The closure area is relatively small, and right outside of Westport.  (relative to the open area)

This is incorrect

Depends on how you look at the map.  All the area to the East of that is open, and everything 'near' shore from the Columbia all the way to La Push is open (your map doesn't show much north of the Queets).  But I fish the Ocean from a kayak and don't have the same range that 30+ ft charter boat has.

Edit:  Additionally, everything past the 30 fathom line was already closed for bottom fishing except during halibut season anyway right?  So they definitely opened up a lot of territory.

[sirmissalot]

Here is some great information on the subject by Ron Garner:

"Kevin is right about what happened. This is a very serious matter. Unfortunately most don't have a clue to have sensitive our Yelloweye and Canary rockfish protection is. This action was caused by a few people that engaged in an area that had Yelloweye. Yelloweye are known to be on the same grounds as Lingcod and that is what makes it tough. If WDFW/PFMC hadn’t done this reaction and the same guys went back again next year with more people, we could have our coasts shut down. We are playing with dynamite.

This is the sort of thing that makes it tough on us that work the political side to try to keep us fishing. When coastal YE and Canary ESA protection first came out I worked with WDFW as they wanted to shut down the entire north coast to halibut except three small postage sized areas. One near the SW corner closure, one at Bluedot, and one near Swiftsure. I worked with them to keep our coasts open. It was all for the protection of yelloweye and canary.

We asked them to leave it the way it was and to let us hammer out most of our halibut on the SW corner where a lot of the yelloweye had already been removed, thus keeping us off of them. Since we had so few days on the water it was thought we would not impact the YE as much. They agreed and left it open and next came the 120' depth restriction, 180'in MA 2.


We have a small Yelloweye and Canary mortality quota. This means that we are allowed to kill just so many YE to get our targeted fish. If there was zero mortality we would be shut down from all bottomfishing. There is a management plan to recover the Yelloweye and Canary by a certain date. I believe 2047. So instead of it happening all at once shutting down all fishing, they have used a rebuilding plan spread over years to recover our YE and Canary Rockfish.

It wouldn't take but one commercial fisher anywhere in Washington, California, or Oregon to hit a good bed of Yelloweye and the entire coast could get shut down to all bottomfishing immediately.

We would still have full open seasons on deep water if it weren’t for federal YE and Canary protections to restore them. WDFW is the buffer that has to figure out how we can keep fishing without taking too many YE and Canary Rockfish. The Yelloweye and Canary kill quota gets less and less every couple of years. Its up to us to educate others about these fish and if someone gets into yelloweye, you need to leave the area immediately.

There will be a policy review in 2014 on our YE and Canary. If we are shown we are going over our kill quota, we will have a bottomfish shutdown. If you read between the lines this is a shot across the bow that worse things are yet to come if we don’t clean up our act. We could lose this great fishery and data shows it is what it is.

This is an older post from WDFW and think the current Washington tonnage is 2.5 M tons.
Fishery Management

A recent stock assessment indicates that the yelloweye rockfish population has declined over 80% from its initial level. As a result, immediate action must be taken if the stocks of these long-lived fish are to be rebuilt.
To rebuild yelloweye rockfish populations, the harvest opportunities for this species must be severely curtailed. In recent years, the Pacific Fishery Management Council has set yelloweye rockfish harvest levels for all commercial, recreational, and tribal fisheries combined for California, Oregon, and Washington of about 17 (now I think is 14) metric tons (mt). This number includes yelloweye rockfish that are discarded at sea.

The Washington recreational harvest target is about 2.7 mt (fewer than 1,000 fish) in coastal waters. To put this in perspective, in 2001, the Washington recreational fishery harvested 15 mt.

Halibut Fishery in Jeopardy
Yelloweye rockfish, in general, are harvested during the Washington recreational halibut fishery. If the yelloweye rockfish catch is projected to exceed 2.7 mt, then Pacific ocean waters adjacent to Washington outside 25 fathoms will be closed to recreational bottomfish fishing (including halibut).



If yelloweye rockfish cannot be avoided when anglers are targeting halibut, then we may have to close recreational halibut fishing in the future to protect yelloweye rockfish. Because the yelloweye rockfish stock may not be rebuilt for over 100 years, the problem of managing the yelloweye fishery will continue through our lifetime; however, you have the ability to help save the halibut fishery now and preserve the yelloweye resource for the future.

So to sum this up each individual carries a huge responsibility to help us conserve and restore these fish and still be able to enjoy our fishing seasons."

This should answer a lot of questions

[LeeMajors]

Sounds like it was the most reasonable approach to the problem.  If they would just attach reasons with the rule change emails, fewer people would get all worked up for no reason.

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[DoubleJ]

I know of several people recieving multiple deer and elk tags in the mail

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