EMERGENCY RULES
FISH AND WILDLIFE
Date of Adoption: June 17, 1999.
Purpose: Commercial fishing rules.
Statutory Authority for Adoption: RCW 75.08.080.
Under RCW 34.05.350 the agency for good cause finds that state or federal law or federal rule or a federal deadline for state receipt of federal funds requires immediate adoption of a rule.
Reasons for this Finding: This rule implements the exempted fishing permit program recommended by PFMC to allow for a directed whiting fishery with by catch allowances for direct dumping of the cod end into refrigerated seawater. Since this fishery does not allow sorting, legal overages are forfeited to the state, and payment at fair market value reduces the incentive to target on species other than whiting. There is insufficient time to promulgate permanent rules.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Comply with Federal Statute: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Federal Rules or Standards: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Recently Enacted State Statutes: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted at Request of a Nongovernmental Entity: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted on the Agency's Own Initiative: New 1, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Clarify, Streamline, or Reform Agency Procedures: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted Using Negotiated Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Pilot Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Other Alternative Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0. Effective Date of Rule: Immediately.
June 17, 1999
J. P. Koenings
Director
It is unlawful for any person licensed as a wholesale dealer or fish buyer to purchase bottom fish taken in coastal or offshore waters in violation of this section.
(1) The following definitions apply to this section:
(a) "Designated processor" means a wholesale dealer designated by the holder of an EFP who has agreed to accept whiting and other species taken in the whiting fishery
(a) "EFP" means a state-issued exempted fishing permit for the coastal whiting fishery.
(b) "EFP vessel" means an exempted fishing permit vessel in the whiting fishery in coastal and offshore waters that is permitted to land bottom fish in excess of the trip and cumulative limits in WAC 220-44-050, as well as other fish taken incidental to whiting.
(c) "Fair market value" means the wholesale market price paid by a designated processor for a species or species complex, or the average price paid for such fish by the industry for the preceding thirty days, which ever is the greater amount, or, if no purchases have been made of the species or species complex during the preceding thirty days, the amount set forth in Oregon Administrative Rule 635-006-0232, as adopted on May 12, 1999.
(d) "Legal overage" means the amount of a limit species taken in excess of the trip or cumulative limits provided for in WAC 220-44-050.
(e) "Limit species" means any of the species or species complexes provided for in WAC 220-44-050 which have a trip or cumulative limit.
(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of WAC 220-44-050, it is lawful for the holder of an EFP to possess a legal overage if the holder of the EFP is fishing for whiting or has whiting aboard.
(3) A designated processor receiving whiting taken by an EFP vessel must hold any salmon for scientific investigation pursuant to RCW 75.12.210, and must hold any halibut or Dungeness crab for disposal by the State.
(4) If a designated processor accepts whiting from a EFP vessel, the designated processor must accept all limit species aboard the vessel at the time of landing, and must pay the fair market value for the entire amount of the legal overage in the landing.
(5) The designated processor must remit any payment for purchase of a legal overage to the Department within two weeks days after receipt of the fish.
(6) Failure to pay or remit the fair market value for the legal overage constitutes unlawful trafficking and is punishable under RCW 77.15.260.
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Reviser's note: The typographical error in the above section occurred in the copy filed by the agency and appears in the Register pursuant to the requirements of RCW 34.08.040.