I have the same conspiracy theory in 8-2. This year it was open for one day, midweek and then closed. Last year it was open Saturday and Wednesday and by the logic there were more people this year midweek than there were last year on a weekend AND midweek.
I think WDFW was told to shut down big drawing seasons regardless of if there was any distancing issues or not.
Aerial flights showed 700 shrimp boats in Areas 8-1 and 8-2 (east side of Whidbey Island), which is a good weekday turnout.
Note it says good weekday turnout, not good for a weekend and certainly not as good as a weekend and weekday combined.
Same with hood canal, pressure was down on the opener this year due to scheduling:
In Hood Canal (12) aerial counts were down with about 1,049 boats counted compared to a normal year would be closer to 1,400 to 1,500.
So, if the pressure was down and the quota was the same, how did we burn it up so much faster? Like always, WDFW remains silent. Zero accountability or transparency.