Contact: Josh Weiss, Legislative/Legal Affairs Coordinator (360) 902-2226

Situation

Current law allows a person holding a salmon gill net, salmon purse seine and salmon reef net license to pay only the $100 enhancement surcharge plus a $15 handling fee if the licensee decides not to participate in that year's fishery. In order to be eligible to keep a license current while placing it "on hold" in this way, the license holder must notify the department by August 1 of that calendar year.

Problem

In recent years, the decline in abundance of Puget Sound salmon runs has reduced opportunity for commercial fishing, especially for the most important commercial season in Puget Sound, the Fraser River sockeye run. For example, the early portion of the Fraser River runs traditionally were fished in late July when run size predictions and harvest allocations were available. In recent years the Early Stuart River run has been depressed, and there has been no early season.

The result is that salmon fishers in Puget Sound have not been provided the information necessary to decide whether to fish until just a few days before the deadline. Puget Sound commercial fishers believe that, due to these changes in runs and in competition, the August 1 deadline for determining whether to participate is no longer a reasonable deadline.

In addition, the coastal harbor salmon fishery has declined so that the first update fishery is not happening until late August, well beyond the nonparticipation notification deadline.

Solution

The agency proposes amending RCW 77.65.160 to require notification of nonparticipation before September 16, rather than before August 1. By moving the waiver date for both fisheries, both the Puget Sound and coastal salmon fishers will have adequate opportunity to decide whether or not to fish. The later deadline allows time to provide for accurate run-size estimates for all components of the Fraser River sockeye run as well as accurate run size estimates for coastal harbor fishers.

The agency also proposes the RCW be amended to require the non-participating license holder to pay the surcharge and handling fee before September 16. Current law only requires license holders to notify the Department in writing that they will not participate in the fishery but allows them to wait until December 31 to actually pay the surcharge and handling fee. Requiring earlier payment will reduce administrative workload at the end of the year when all other renewals are due.

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