EMERGENCY RULES
FISH AND WILDLIFE
Date of Adoption: June 30, 1999.
Purpose: Commercial fishing rules.
Citation of Existing Rules Affected by this Order: Repealing WAC 220-48-01500I; and amending WAC 220-48-015.
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 is necessary to open trawl areas that had been closed for softshell crab. The rule is also necessary to extend closed areas which have softshell crab. The most recent test indicates the crab have hardened and this closure is no longer necessary. The quota of cod is 55,000 pounds (represents 10% of current stock abundance estimate) in 1999 and through June 22 less than 13,000 pounds have been caught. Therefore, a harvestable amount of cod exists to allow reopening the waters deeper than 40 fathoms. 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Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Comply with Federal Statute: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Federal Rules or Standards: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Recently Enacted State Statutes: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted at Request of a Nongovernmental Entity: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted on the Agency's Own Initiative: New 1, Amended 0, Repealed 1.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Clarify, Streamline, or Reform Agency Procedures: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted Using Negotiated Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Pilot Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Other Alternative Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.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: July 1, 1999, 12:01 a.m.
June 30, 1999
Larry W. Peck
for Jeff P. Koenings
Director
Notwithstanding the provisions of WAC 220-48-015:
(1) Effective 12:01 a.m. July 1, 1999, until further notice it is unlawful to fish for bottomfish for commercial purposes using beam trawl or bottom trawl gear in those waters of Marine Fish-Shellfish Management and Catch Reporting Area 20A within an area bounded by lines from Lilly Point to Birch Point and Lilly Point to the north Alden Bank buoy to where those lines are intersected by a line projected approximately 230 degrees south from Birch Point to Alden Point on Patos Island.
(2) Effective 12:01 a.m. July 1, 1999, until further notice it is lawful to fish for bottomfish for commercial purposes using beam trawl or bottom trawl gear in those waters of Marine Fish-Shellfish Management and Catch Reporting Areas 20A, 20B, 21A, 22A and 22B.
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The following section of the Washington Administrative Code is repealed effective 11:59 p.m. June 30, 1999:
| WAC 220-48-01500I | Puget Sound bottom trawl restriction in softshell crab areas. (99-22) |