EMERGENCY RULES
FISH AND WILDLIFE
Effective Date of Rule: Immediately.
Purpose: Amend commercial fishing rules.
Citation of Existing Rules Affected by this Order: Repealing WAC 220-52-05100H; and amending WAC 220-52-051.
Statutory Authority for Adoption: RCW 77.12.047.
Under RCW 34.05.350 the agency for good cause finds that immediate adoption, amendment, or repeal of a rule is necessary for the preservation of the public health, safety, or general welfare, and that observing the time requirements of notice and opportunity to comment upon adoption of a permanent rule would be contrary to the public interest.
Reasons for this Finding: The regional 2007 state/tribal shrimp harvest management plans for Puget Sound require adoption of harvest seasons and the prohibition on nighttime fishing contained in this emergency rule. This emergency rule closes the shrimp fishery in Catch Area 23A-W and the spot shrimp fishery in Catch Area 23B because of projected quota completion in those areas. This regulation also opens Catch Area 23A-C, according to requirements of the management plan for Shrimp Management Area 3. 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Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Comply with Federal Statute: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Federal Rules or Standards: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Recently Enacted State Statutes: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted at Request of a Nongovernmental Entity: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted on the Agency's Own Initiative: New 1, Amended 0, Repealed 1.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Clarify, Streamline, or Reform Agency Procedures: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted Using Negotiated Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Pilot Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Other Alternative Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Date Adopted: July 25, 2007.
J. P. Koenings
Director
(1) Shrimp pot gear:
(a) All waters of Shrimp Management Areas 1A, 1C, 2E, 2W, 3, 4, and 6 are open immediately to the harvest of all shrimp species, until further notice, except as provided for in this section:
(i) All waters of Catch Areas 23A-C, 23A-E, 26B-1, 26C and the Discovery Bay Shrimp District are closed.
(j) Effective 12:00 p.m. on July 25, 2007, until further notice, all waters of Catch Area 23B will be closed to the harvest of spot shrimp.
(k) Effective 9:30 p.m., on July 25, 2007, until further notice, all waters of Catch Area 23A-W will be closed to the harvest of all shrimp species.
(l) Effective 6:00 a.m. July 26, 2007, until further notice, all waters of Catch Area 23A-C will be open to the harvest of all shrimp species.
(b) The shrimp accounting week is Monday through Sunday.
(c) Effective immediately until further notice, it is unlawful for the combined total harvest of spot shrimp by a fisher and/or the fisher's alternate operator to exceed 600 pounds per week, except that any fisher whose weekly shrimp harvest activity is exclusively limited to Marine Fish-Shellfish Catch and Reporting Area 29 shall not be subject to the weekly spot shrimp trip limit for that week. It is unlawful to fish for any shrimp while in possession, on board the fishing vessel, of any spot shrimp from any previous accounting week.
(d) It is unlawful to set or pull shellfish pots with a mesh size of less than the size as defined below in all waters of Shrimp Management Areas 1A, 1C, 2E, 2W, 4, and 6, on days when fishing for or retaining spot shrimp. Spot shrimp taken in these areas are not subject to the minimum carapace length restriction.
(i) The minimum mesh size for rigid mesh pots is 1-inch, defined as a mesh opening that a 7/8-inch square peg will pass through, excluding the entrance tunnels.
(ii) The minimum mesh size for flexible mesh pots is defined as 1-3/4-inch stretched mesh measure.
(e) It is unlawful to retain spot shrimp taken by shellfish pot gear that have a carapace length less than 1-3/16 inch as measured from the posterior mid-dorsal margin to the posterior-most part of the eye stalk orbit, in all waters of Shrimp Management Area 3.
(f) It is unlawful to fish for shrimp for commercial purposes in Puget Sound using shellfish pot gear in more than one Marine Fish-Shellfish Management and Catch Reporting Area per day. Fishers may move all of their shellfish pot gear from one Marine Fish-Shellfish Management and Catch Reporting Area to another Marine Fish-Shellfish Management and Catch Reporting Area if a harvest report is made before the shellfish pot gear is moved. The harvest activity report must be made consistent with the provisions of WAC 220-52-075 and must also include the following additional information:
(i) The number of pots being moved to a new area, and the Marine Fish-Shellfish Management and Catch Reporting Area that the pots are being moved to.
(g) It is unlawful to set or pull shellfish pots in one Marine Fish-Shellfish Management and Catch Reporting Area while in possession of shrimp harvested from another Marine Fish-Shellfish Management and Catch Reporting Area, except that shellfish pots may be set in a new fishing area subsequent to making a report as indicated in Section 1(f) above.
(2) Shrimp beam trawl gear:
Shrimp Management Area 3 (outside of the Discovery Bay Shrimp District, Sequim Bay, and Catch Area 23D) is open immediately, until further notice. Sequim Bay includes those waters of Catch Area 25A south of a line projected west from Travis Spit on the Miller Peninsula.
(a) That portion of Catch Areas 21A and 22A within Shrimp Management Area 1B is open immediately, until further notice.
(3) It is unlawful to set or pull shrimp beam trawl gear from one hour after official sunset to one hour before official sunrise.
(4) All shrimp taken under this section must be sold to licensed Washington wholesale fish dealers.
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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.
REPEALER
The following section of the Washington Administrative Code is repealed:
| WAC 220-52-05100H | Puget Sound shrimp pot and beam trawl fishery -- Season (07-148) |