Potential Sound Restrictions

Typically Rory is our champion on these, but I found this link on Spearboard and thought I'd throw it out there for ya'all to consider.

https://www.votervoice.net/mobile/PSA/campaigns/32623/respond

I love it when it's easy.

Sent from my GD300

Check the front page of the wdfw website too.... voting and discussions coming up within the next two weeks

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I don't fish the Sound but these types of things are so ridiculous I try to contribute any way I can.

Too bad that some stupid D-bag diver decided kill a Octo off the Seacrest pier and brag all over the place about it a while back. Puget Sound has been way over fished and literaly shit upon for a long time so I am in support for closing certain areas to fishing to protect impacted resident species. You probably don't want to eat much resident fish and invertebrates from Puget Sound anyway unless you have a good Oncologist.

Tomas

Dirtbag or not, the diver who took the octopus was within the confines of the law as it stands right now.  Yes he behaved totally inappropriately but that is a seperate issue.  As a scuba diver myself I have seen so many restrictions enacted in the Sound that my speargun has not seen saltwater in years.  I personally have no interest in taking an octopus, and I support establishing game refuges so divers can marvel at their grace, beauty, intelligence and intense curiousity.  That stops short of a ban, however.

I rarely weigh in on these topics but this time it seemed the thing to do.

Thank you for sharing. I've submitted the message.

... You probably don't want to eat much resident fish and invertebrates from Puget Sound anyway unless you have a good Oncologist.

I hear this all the time and think it is a crock.  First, with all the rivers and runoff, Puget Sound has good flushing.  Migrating species like most salmon come out of the ocean and are not residents. 

You could have provided input on the WDFW website on the proposed restrictions on octopus and I did.  http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations/octopus/  Besides divers, who only access a tiny fraction of the sound, who is targeting octopus?  Anybody EVER seen someone putting out pots for them or intentionally trying to catch them in areas 5-13?  I'm hopeful this "process" is all PR for the WDFW so they can justify doing nothing in the end.  In some perverse way though, the proposed rules DO make me want to start dropping traps for them.........

I also commented on the proposal to increase restrictions on Cabezon in 5-13 and was gratified that they decided to not change the rules, at least for this year.  That said, I haven't picked up one Cab from my usual "easy" spot this year which makes me uneasy that they may actually be on the decline.  I suspect that big cabs are a function of not-so-many seals and the recovering seal population may be affecting them.  http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/regulations/cabezon/

I see no moral restrictions on putting a pot for octopus. Cephalopods aren't any close to humans or mammals in any fashion or sense, they are "parallel" development. Restricting fishing for octopus is as dumb as restricting fishing for salmon, because hmmm... what would be the reason... because theoretically speaking salmon is our ancestor, in a sense. They they are beautiful fish too. And people love to watch them on Ballard locks. And... And... And... I can think out a bunch of nosense reasons.

I understand the frustration of divers when that guy took that octopus from that west seattle underwater park. But closing whole Puget Sound for octopus fishing is really too much.

Needless to say, that the reason why WDFW let you take 1 octopus per day all year around is because octopus primary prey is crab, so letting people fish octopus will help keep crab population higher, and crab has much higher commercial value than octopus.

Fish and Wildlife Commission extends octopus protections and sets hunting seasons for migratory waterfowl

http://wdfw.wa.gov/news/aug0213c/

Fuck.  The end points are never chosen, and we continually lose ground.

You know ... in CA, we needed to follow SEPA guidelines.  I wonder if those are followed for these closures.  Hah!  I don't wonder.  There really was no time to follow them.  Time for an appeal.

-Allen

SEPA ... http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/sea/sepa/e-review.html

Even closures can have adverse environmental impact.  Seriously.

-Allen

Gesu Cristo... well i guess it's true that people only get off their asses and organize when it hits them in their wallets or family trees. Apparently sometimes not even then.

Thanks to the few of you who stood up and made comment electronically. This should not have happened but we just didnt have the non emo numbers to win.

Allen, appeals process started where?

I just read up on this whole issue - the history with the kid harvesting the GPO and all the controversy surrounding that - and I'm outraged but not surprised, unfortunately. This is the climate we live in. I am disappointed that the WDFW has reacted this way and emboldened the very vocal, and apparently militant, divers. The whole thing reeks.