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

Situation

The Department is in the early stages of testing innovative fishing gear that show promise of being able to capture adult salmon alive. If the gear proves practical, it would allow fishers to selectively keep fish targeted for harvest, and release others unharmed. Such gear could substantially help in the recovery of weak wild stocks, while maintaining maximum commercial harvest opportunity. Currently, most commercial fishing gears cannot selectively remove harvestable fish while avoiding depressed stocks.

Problem

Before the Department can proceed with tests and determine the practicality of new gear, they must be evaluated for their fishing effectiveness and their impacts on other sea life in a controlled commercial situation. However, some of the new gear is either banned from use under existing state law, or does not fall under the commercial licensing categories. Therefore, the ability to conduct valid trial fisheries is greatly hindered.

Proposal

The Department is proposing to specifically allow WDFW to conduct limited scale commercial fishing tests with special gears under a trial or experimental fishery permit, and under guidance of emerging commercial fishery stipulations.

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