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POLICY DECISION

• Preservation, protection, and perpetuation of the living marine resources through coordinated management of fisheries within the Exclusive Economic Zone shall be the primary principle which will guide the Department's position.
• The Department will support harvest strategies that promote optimum long-term sustainable harvest levels.
• The Department will seek the views of the public, including those who represent the consumptive and non-consumptive interest groups when formulating the Department's position on specific issues before the councils.
• The Department will support balanced representation of Washington interest on the councils' advisory groups and committees, including recreational, commercial and non-consumptive.
• The Department will support initiatives and existing programs which more closely align the harvest capacity with the long-term sustained harvest quantities of marine resources. Specifically, the Department supports individual quota programs and license and effort limitations programs which promote economic efficiency and result in maximizing the social and economic benefits derived from the fishery.
• The department will support tribal fisheries which are consistent with the applicable federal court orders while recognizing the need for management flexibility to optimize fishing opportunity.
• Resource allocation positions will consider, but not be limited to, social implications, impacts on fishing dependent communities and net economic benefits to the state.
• The Department will support monitoring programs which gather biological, discard, and bycatach data from each of the fisheries.
• The Department will take a precautionary approach in the management of species where the supporting biological information is incomplete and/or the total fishery-related mortalities are unknown.
• The Department will support consideration of the use of risk-averse management tools to protect the resources in the face of management uncertainty.
• The Department will support management measures which conserve, restore, and enhance the quality of essential fish habitats upon which Council-managed fisheries resources depend.