OAK HARBOR Sport pot fishing for Dungeness crab in this area opens at 8 a.m. Saturday (May 8) until further notice, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced today.

While the Oak Harbor area of Marine Area 8-1, identified as the portion south of an east-west line across the southern tip of Goat Island (Swinomish Channel's eastern entrance area) opens tomorrow, the area north of the Goat Island line, including Hope Island and Similk and Cornet bays, remains closed to pot fishing for crab.

All Puget Sound waters traditionally have been closed to pot fishing from April 16 to July 15 to protect molting crabs. Recent testing by WDFW and Swinomish tribal biologists determine that Dungeness crabs in most of Area 8-1 have finished molting and their shells are hard enough to permit pot fishing.

All waters of Marine Area 8-2 opened to pot fishing for crab in April. Area 8-2 is: east of a line extending from East Point on Whidbey Island to the flashing light immediately north of Lowell Point on Camano Island, and northward of a line extending from Possession Point on Whidbey Island 110 degrees true to the shipwreck on the opposite mainland shore.

A 36-hour commercial crab fishery for the same open areas of Marine Areas 8-1 and 8-2 has been scheduled for 8 a.m. May 11 through 8 p.m. May 12.

All Puget Sound waters remain open for sport ring net, SCUBA, star trap fishing and wading for Dungeness crabs.