HOUSE BILL REPORT

EHB 2291

BYRepresentatives Spanel, Bowman, R. King, Haugen, Brumsickle, Sayan, Basich, Brooks, Morris, S. Wilson and Vekich; by request of Department of Fisheries

Regarding sea cucumber commercial fishing.

House Committe on Fisheries & Wildlife

Majority Report:  Do pass as amended.  (10)

      Signed by Representatives R. King, Chair; Morris, Vice Chair; S. Wilson, Ranking Republican Member; Basich, Bowman, Brooks, Haugen, Smith, Spanel and Vekich.

House Staff:Pamela Madson (786-7310)

AS PASSED HOUSE FEBRUARY 6, 1990

BACKGROUND:

Sea cucumbers are being harvested in record numbers in Washington State waters.  Though this shellfish product has been in demand since ancient times in China, an increasing domestic market has developed for sea cucumbers in the United States and Canada.  The dried body wall and muscle of the spiny cucumber are used primarily by cooks in Asian restaurants.

Washington has seen a dramatic increase the last two years in the harvest of sea cucumbers and the number of boats that participate in the fishery.  Twenty-five boats participated in 1987 and 125 boats participated in 1989.  For most of the 1980s, the average harvest was around 275,000 pounds.  In 1988, the harvest was 1.9 million pounds. The price per bucket to the fisher has increased from $13 in 1987 to $30 a bucket in 1989.

The Department of Fisheries began limiting harvest in 1987 by establishing a rotation harvest by area, and limiting each area to harvest once every four years.  The harvest season was limited to six months, beginning May 1 and ending October 31.

As harvest pressure builds on a particular fishery, a management tool used by the Department of Fisheries to reduce this pressure is the license limitation program.  A license limitation program attempts to fix the number of available licenses in order to reduce and ultimately maintain a manageably sized harvest fleet.  The state has established license limitation programs for salmon, herring, Puget Sound whiting, sea urchins, and Puget Sound crab.

Commercial fishing licenses are transferable from owner to owner unless they are designated non-transferable by statute.  Of the current license limitation programs, only the sea urchin program and the Puget Sound whiting program issue a non-transferable endorsement or license.

A fisher participating in the sea cucumber fishery must have a shellfish diver license ($50 annually) and a special sea cucumber permit (free) issued by the department.  The shellfish diver license allows a vessel to use divers as the method of harvesting sea cucumbers.  Fishers must also keep harvest logs that identify the area of harvest.

As part of the license limitation programs, advisory review boards may be established to review the department's decisions.  Membership on the boards comes from the fishery affected by the decision.

SUMMARY:

A new limited entry fishery is established for sea cucumbers.  The goal for maximum participation in the fishery is 50 vessels.

After April 30, 1990, only those fishers who have met the following criteria may commercially harvest sea cucumbers:  (a) owned a vessel holding a shellfish diver license and a sea cucumber harvest permit during the calendar year 1989; (b) did not transfer the license to another vessel; (c) made at least 30 landings between January 1, 1988 and December 31, 1989; and (d) obtains a sea cucumber endorsement from the Department of Fisheries.

Vessel owners who renew their sea cucumber endorsements after December 31, 1991 must have met the initial criteria for the endorsement and must have made 30 landings totalling a minimum of 10,000 pounds during the previous two calendar years.

Some flexibility for the strict adherence to the eligibility criteria is allowed through the director's ability to reduce or waive landing or poundage requirements upon recommendation of a fishery advisory review board.  The board may review individual cases for extenuating circumstances.  The director is required to define "extenuating circumstances" by rule.

Endorsements are not transferable from one owner to another except from parent to child and spouse to spouse, and upon death of the owner.

If the fleet falls below 50 vessels, the director of the Department of Fisheries may issue endorsements by random selection to applicants who can demonstrate that they have two years' experience in the Washington sea cucumber diver fishery so as to maintain a fleet of 50 vessels.

Fiscal Note:      Available.

Effective Date:The bill contains an emergency clause and takes effect immediately.

House Committee ‑ Testified For:    Judith Freeman, Department of Fisheries; Alex Bradbury, Department of Fisheries; Ron Ault, Washington State Divers' Association.

House Committee - Testified Against:      No one.

House Committee - Testimony For:    The goal of the department in establishing this limited entry program is to allow historical participants to continue to fish in this fishery.  By making the endorsement non-transferable, the endorsement will not develop a market value of its own.

Experience in the recently established sea urchin limited entry fishery exposed a problem with licenses during appeals.  Under the Administrative Procedures Act, a person appealing a license can continue to fish under the old license until the appeal is resolved.  This bill removes application of that section of the Administrative Procedures Act so that a fisher who appeals the department's decision on eligibility may not continue to fish while an appeal is pending.

The sea cucumber fishing fleet has mushroomed in size and that has created enforcement problems.  Poaching has increased, seasons have been shortened, divers cannot get a profitable amount of cucumbers from a limited area, and pounds harvested per diver hour has decreased. Alternatives to limited entry that would limit the harvest, like shortened seasons, are difficult to implement because of the lag in catch data information.  The department does not know soon enough when the resource is being harvested too heavily.  As limitations on harvest are imposed, divers take more chances by diving deeper and staying down longer to get a bigger harvest.

The policy on the exceptions to transferability should allow an endorsement to be transferred upon death of the owner to family members, or business partners.

House Committee - Testimony Against:      None.