WSR 25-17-025
PERMANENT RULES
DEPARTMENT OF
FISH AND WILDLIFE
[Order 25-05—Filed August 12, 2025, 11:49 a.m., effective September 12, 2025]
Effective Date of Rule: Thirty-one days after filing.
Purpose: The department of fish and wildlife seeks to create a new rule to prohibit recreational or commercial crabbing or shrimping using pot gear or commercial gillnetting or purse seine fishing near Washington state department of transportation ferry terminals in the Puget Sound.
Citation of Rules Affected by this Order: New WAC 220-305-085.
Statutory Authority for Adoption: RCW 77.04.012, 77.04.055, and 77.12.047.
Adopted under notice filed as WSR 25-13-113 on June 18, 2025.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Comply with Federal Statute: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Federal Rules or Standards: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Recently Enacted State Statutes: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted at the Request of a Nongovernmental Entity: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted on the Agency's own Initiative: New 1, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Clarify, Streamline, or Reform Agency Procedures: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted using Negotiated Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Pilot Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Other Alternative Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Date Adopted: August 8, 2025.
Kelly Susewind
Director
RDS-6463.1
NEW SECTION
WAC 220-305-085Closed areas—WSDOT ferry terminals.
(1) It is unlawful for any vessel to engage in any recreational crabbing or shrimping or commercial crabbing, shrimping, gillnetting or purse seine fishing within a rectangular-shaped closure area that extends 100 yards to either side of each end of any Washington state-managed ferry terminal and extending 400 yards in a straight line into the water from the end of each terminal.
Except for the Coupeville ferry terminal whose closure area shall extend 800 yards in a straight line into the water from the end of the terminal.
(2) In addition to the definition of a "terminal" in RCW 79.105.060(21) and for the purpose of this rule, the end of the terminal is the point of interchange where the ferry docks to load and unload passengers.
(3) It is unlawful for vessel operators engaged in fishing to violate the provisions of 33 C.F.R. Section 165.1301.
(4) For recreational fishers, a violation of this section is an infraction punishable under RCW 77.15.160. For commercial fishers, a violation of this section is a gross misdemeanor under RCW 77.15.550.