FINAL BILL REPORT

SSB 6073

C 263 L 03

Synopsis as Enacted

Brief Description: Authorizing the increase of shellfish license fees.

Sponsors: Senate Committee on Ways & Means (originally sponsored by Senators Hargrove, Rossi and Doumit).

Senate Committee on Ways & Means

House Committee on Appropriations

Background: To ensure the health of consumers, the Department of Health's Environmental Health Program conducts testing and monitoring for biotoxins of shellfish from both commercial beds and beaches used by recreational shellfishers. The funding source for this program is the state general fund.

Harmful algal blooms occurring along the Washington coast may cause increased levels of domoic acid, which can trigger closure of the recreational and commercial shellfish harvest. The Olympic Region Harmful Algal Bloom (ORHAB) monitoring program is a collaboration of government, academia, business, and tribes established to study harmful algal blooms on the Washington coast. The program is based in the Olympic Natural Resources Center at the University of Washington. The objectives of the program are to understand the environmental conditions that cause blooms, and to develop models to predict and mitigate the effects of harmful algal blooms.

A personal use shellfish and seaweed license is required to dig for or possess seaweed or shellfish. The fee for the resident license is $7. The fee for the nonresident license is $20. The fee for a resident combination fishing license is $36; the fee for a nonresident combination license is $72.

Summary: Surcharges are added to personal use shellfish license fees to fund (1) biotoxin testing and monitoring by the Department of Health of beaches used for recreational shellfishing and (2) monitoring by the ORHAB monitoring program of the Olympic Natural Resources Center at the University of Washington.

The surcharge increases resident and nonresident shellfish licenses by $3, and the resident and nonresident combination fishing licenses by $2.

Amounts collected from the surcharge are deposited in the general fund-local account managed by the Department of Health. $150,000 of the revenues goes to the ORHAB monitoring program.

These fee increases take effect in the Department of Fish and Wildlife's license fee structure beginning July 1, 2003.

Votes on Final Passage:

Senate       48   1

House       79  18

Effective: July 1, 2003