Procedures and Rules
Pacific Salmon Treaty
Puget Sound Salmon Economic Assistance Program

INTRODUCTION

2001 Puget Sound Economic Assistance Drawing Results Gill Net HTML / PDF Purse Seine HTML / PDF Reef Net HTML / PDF Files in PDF Format require Acrobat Reader

In 1974, the Washington Legislature enacted laws limiting the number of commercial salmon licenses. Subsequently, license numbers have declined through various buy-back programs and by the economic difficulties of the industry. Commercial fishers are required to maintain a license each year to be able to renew the license the following year.

In 1999 the United States and Canada, after extensive negotiations, reached an agreement over modifications to the Pacific Salmon Treaty annexes. The agreement resulted in better conservation actions coast-wide for chinook and coho salmon, but also resulted in a reduced allocation of Fraser River salmon to U.S. non-Indian fishers.

The new Annex reduces the non-Treaty harvest of Fraser River sockeye over a three-year period beginning in 2000. The reductions will be completed by the sockeye salmon season for the year 2002. The overall catch has been reduced from 50 percent of the U.S. share to 32.3 percent of the U.S. share. The U.S. share has been reduced from 22.4 percent to 16.5 percent of the total allowable catch. This is projected to result in an annual average loss to the industry of 2.49 million dollars.

PROGRAM GOAL

The primary goal is to provide economic adjustment assistance to Washington commercial salmon fishers affected by the 1999 Pacific Salmon Treaty negotiations.

The economic adjustment assistance program is structured around a federal and state commitment to compensate non-Indian commercial salmon fishers for the unilateral reduction in their share of the Fraser River salmon runs. As part of the agreement, the United States government pledged to provide up to 30 million dollars, and the state up to 5 million dollars to purchase the licenses of fishers affected by the Treaty. The program will involve the purchase of qualified non-Indian Puget Sound licenses over a three-year period.

In 1999, the U.S. Congress appropriated 4.625 million dollars for the purchase of Puget Sound licenses affected by the Treaty. This money was provided by contract through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the Department of Interior. The Congress appropriated 19.954 million dollars in 2000 to the U.S. State Department as a direct grant to the State of Washington for economic assistance to meet provisions of the Treaty. An additional 1.38 million dollars of funds appropriated by the Washington State Legislature for the 1999-01 biennium are also available. Therefore, a total of $25,959,689 is now available to purchase Puget Sound licenses and administer the program with another 9 million expected from both federal and state sources.

PROGRAM DESIGN

The Department has had several meetings with industry leaders regarding the economic adjustment assistance program. These discussions have included representatives from the Purse Seine Vessel Owners Association, Puget Sound Gillnetters Association, and the Reef Netters Association. The Department has incorporated most of their suggestions and concerns into this program. Proposed rules have been filed as required under the Washington Administrative Procedures Act and the Fish and Wildlife Commission accepted formal public testimony on Friday, April 6, 2001, at their meeting at the Ramada Inn at Spokane International Airport in Spokane, Washington. Final rules are available upon request, contact the License Division at (360) 902-2450.

PROPOSED PUGET SOUND PROGRAM

The economic adjustment assistance program will occur in three phases.

Phase 1 is now under way and will be based upon the current available funds of $24,579,000 in federal funds and $1,380,689 in state funds for purchase of licenses. The Department will apply up to a 3.0 percent overhead charge to the Phase 1 federal funds to administer the program. Therefore, the total amount of federal funds available to purchase licenses is $23,841,630. Total federal and state funds available for purchasing licenses in Phase 1 is $25,222,319.

Phase 2 will occur in the fall of 2001 only if additional funds are available. It will be based upon an additional 2.5 million dollars in state funding expected to be appropriated by the state Legislature for the 2001-03 biennial budget. The Department may apply up to a three percent overhead charge to the Phase 2 state funds to administer the program. Therefore, $2,425,000 in state funds is expected to be available for purchase of licenses in Phase 2.

Phase 3 will proceed in the spring of 2002 only if additional funds are available. It is based upon an expected additional 5.375 million dollars in federal appropriations in the federal fiscal year 2002 budget, and 1.05 million dollars additional funds expected to be appropriated by the state Legislature. The Department will apply up to a three percent overhead charge to the Phase 3 federal and state funds to administer the program. Therefore, $5,213,750 in federal funds and $1,018,500 in state funds is expected to be available for purchase of licenses in Phase 3.

Total funds expected to be available in all three phases for purchasing licenses is expected to be $33,879,569. Any administrative funds not expended will also go toward purchasing licenses.

Funds Allocated By Gear Type

Licenses To Purchase and Purchase Price

The available funds for each phase and the number of licenses to be purchased are shown in the following tables.

Funds Expected To Be Available For Each Gear Group By Phase

The Department proposes to purchase the following numbers and types of Puget Sound licenses in each phase:

CRITERIA FOR DETERMINING ELIGIBLE LICENSES

Only persons meeting the following criteria will be eligible to participate in the program:

The person possessed in 2000 either a Puget Sound Salmon Gill Net license, and/or a Salmon Purse Seine License, and/or a Salmon Reef Net License issued pursuant to RCW 75.28.110, and is eligible to possess the same license or licenses in 2001.

APPLICATION PROCESS

1. A person can make only one offer per license under the program.

2. Applications must be submitted to the Department's Licensing Division on a Department offer form.
• A completed offer form must contain the following information:
  The applicant's name, Social Security number, mailing address (during the offer period), telephone number (if applicable), and the license type and license number being offered;

• The offer amounts are:
  Purse Seine: $103,300
  Puget Sound Gill Net: $ 27,500
  Reef Net: $ 57,600
  
  
3. Applications for all phases will be accepted through 5:00 p.m., May 11, 2001. Only those applications received by this deadline will be eligible for the Phase 1 buyback. Applications received after this date will be ranked for Phase 2 or Phase 3 as detailed under the procedures for ranking offers.

PROCEDURES FOR RANKING PUGET SOUND PURSE SEINE LICENSES

1. All Puget Sound Salmon Purse Seine licenses will be ranked based upon participation in the Puget Sound summer and fall salmon fisheries.

2. Purse seine rankings will be based upon a point system (0 -15). Two points will be provided for one or more verified landings during the summer fisheries (July and August) and one point will be provided for one or more landings in the fall fisheries (September through November) for each year between 1994 and 1998. If a person made one or more landings in July or August of each of the years 1994 through 1998 they would have five points. If a person made one or more landings in September, October, or November in each of the years 1994 through 1998 they would have ten points. If they had landings in all of those seasons, they would receive all fifteen possible points.

3. Points will be assigned only if the current license owner and program applicant also landed salmon on the same license some time during the 1994-1998 qualifying period except upon the death of the licensee, the license shall be treated as analogous to personal property for the purposes of calculating and assigning points in the program. A license transferred to an immediate family member during or after the period 1994-1998, and who has continued with that license shall be able to count the points for that license and shall be qualified to participate in the program.

4. Landings will be documented on official Washington State fish receiving tickets or computer generated landing lists certified by the Department to be true and correct copies of Washington.

5. In the event that two or more applicants have the same number of points, a random draw shall be conducted to rank the applicants among themselves before placing them into the overall rank order.

6. The ranking will continue until all applicants have been rank ordered. The order of ranking will apply to all phases of the program.

7. Persons selected based upon the rank order and the available funds will be notified by the Department that a license offer has been accepted by registered mail to the address provided on the offer form. The acceptance and acknowledgment sent must be signed and returned to the Department within twenty days of the Department's mailing date. Acknowledgment received after the twenty day period is void and the acceptance will be withdrawn. Final rankings of all licenses will be available upon request to applicants when all appeals have been settled.

8. Persons not selected in Phase 1 will be sent an acknowledgment by mail to the address provided on the offer form that their ranking will continue to apply for Phase 2 and Phase 3 when, and if, they should occur.

9. Persons who apply after 5:00 p.m. on May 11, 2001, will be ranked at the bottom of the ranked list in the order that the applications were received. If two or more applications are received on the same date, they will be randomly drawn to rank order their position at the end of the list. They are not eligible to participate in Phase 1.

10. Persons who wish to appeal their ranking must appeal within twenty days of receiving the registered letter of acknowledgment. Any appeal received after the twenty day period is void and the ranking will stand. Appeals will be referred to an adjudicative proceeding for resolution.

11. The Department will tender the amount of the offer upon receipt of a valid acknowledgment and upon resolution of all appeals that affect the ranking of licenses to be purchased.