FINAL BILL REPORT
E2SSB 5658
C 126 L 99
Synopsis as Enacted
Brief Description: Changing shellfish provisions.
Sponsors: Senate Committee on Ways & Means (originally sponsored by Senators Spanel, Hargrove and Snyder).
Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Parks & Recreation
Senate Committee on Ways & Means
House Committee on Natural Resources
Background: The harvesting of sea urchins and sea cucumbers is limited to 45 sea urchin and 50 sea cucumber licenses. A licensee must harvest and sell 20,000 pounds of urchin and 10,000 pounds of cucumber every two years in order to renew his or her license. Licenses may only be transferred upon death, divorce, or to a child or spouse. Because of recent limitations placed on these fisheries by court decisions and the size of the resource, it has become very difficult for some harvesters to maintain their licenses. Some licensees wish to transfer their licenses to others.
Summary: Only 25 dive fishery licenses for the harvest of sea urchins and 25 for sea cucumbers are allowed. Only natural persons may renew licenses after December 31, 1999. Each natural person is limited to a maximum of two urchin and two cucumber licenses.
Sea urchin and sea cucumber dive fishery accounts are created to reduce the number of licenses to 25 each, and for resource management and enforcement. Surcharges are paid into the respective accounts for license renewals, designation of alternate operators, and transference of licenses. The funds are subject to allotment. A one-time exemption is allowed for a transference to a spouse or child.
The excise tax on sea urchins and sea cucumbers is raised to 4.6 percent from January 1, 2000, until December 31, 2005, and returned to 2.1 percent thereafter. The additional tax is paid into the respective dive fishery retirement accounts.
Votes on Final Passage:
Senate 46 0
House 95 0
Effective: July 25, 1999 (Sections 1, 2 and 4)
January 1, 2000 (Section 3)