Leaning on the Wildlife Commission 8
The following letter, signed by ten Legislators of the State of Washington expressed what we sportfishers have known for a long, long time.
We are getting the short end of the stick and have been for years upon years… The difference now is that we have some political support to aid our cause:
The commercial crabbers response to this letter? They wrote a letter of their own to the Commission, an ultimatum really, threatening legal action if the Commission rules on the crab allocation issue on Friday, October 1, 2010. The Commission responded with a simple statement:
"The WDFW Wildlife Commission will be continuing on with the meeting agenda as planned". Bravo Commissioners! Bravo!!!
With pressure like this on the Commission, we need to support the "Stand-up Ten" Representatives who had the guts to stand up on behalf of the recreational fishermen of Washington State!
How do we support them? With our votes in less than six weeks during the November election.
The WDFW commission is comprised of representatives from diverse locations and perspectives, including commercial fishing. There are no such expectations they should all vote the same.
Who were the 2 that voted against this? And why. If they don't have a good reason for voting against this, let vote them out!!!!
Great result! Very welcome news. Lots of thanks to go around on this one. Should mean a few more crab cakes next year, and serves as a great building block for future challenges faced by NW sportsmen.
That's some great news Nelly! Thanks for posting all the information.
UPDATE: THE COMMISSION TODAY (10/1/10) VOTED 7-2 IN FAVOR OF THE 240,000 RECREATIONAL CRABBERS OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON!!! THANK-YOU LEGISLATORS AND THANK-YOU COMMISSION!!!
This is one of those bites out of the elephant. Rest assured that the fight is not over and will never be but if we stay organized and united, hopefully we can get some W's.
The unmitigated greed of the Puget Sound commercial crabbers is shocking to me. Option A amounts to about a 4% shift in allocation from commercial to recreational and in year 1 still leaves the approximately 150 Puget Sound commercial crabbers with MORE THAN HALF of the total harvest in the Sound. That they would threaten the Commission with a lawsuit is pathetic and preposterous. I suspect there are a few attorneys in town who've had enough of this and would offer free services to check the commercials if they actually follow through on their lame threats.
I cannot wait to announce a victory to our chapter members. Finally some equability in crab allocation. Bravo to everyone who had a hand in this. Thank You Dave Montoya President NSC CCA