ARCHIVED NEWS RELEASE
This document is provided for archival purposes only. Archived documents
do not reflect current WDFW regulations or policy and may contain factual
inaccuracies.
News release Dec. 23, 1998
OLYMPIA— Sport and commercial Dungeness crab fishing in North Puget Sound will close at 4 p.m., Dec. 31, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has announced.
The recreational closure affects Marine Area 8-1, Marine Area 8-2 and a portion of Marine Area 9. The areas affected by the recreational closure include waters from an imaginary line between Reservation Head and West Point (near Deception Pass) south to an imaginary line from Picnic Point to Possession Point on Whidbey Island.
The commercial closure includes Marine Fish/Shellfish Catch Reporting Area 25A west of a line from the new Dungeness Light to the mouth of Cooper Creek and all of Marine Fish/Shellfish Catch Reporting areas 24A, 24B, 24C, 24D, 26A, 25B and 25D. Both closures are being put in place because state harvest allocations have been reached. Additionally, the shells of crabs in the Everett and Saratoga Passage areas are not sufficiently hard, the Department has determined.