![]() In Washington, which has an eight-month Dungeness season, "50 percent of our harvest is taken within the first 15 to 17 days," he said. "To me, this is probably the most significant action taken by the two commissions to benefit the crab fisheries off both states," Anderson.īoth states can also now work to "rationalize" the crab fisheries - now race-for-fish marathons. The agreement also clears the way for Washington to look into buying back some commercial licenses in response to the growth of tribal fisheries. Still-expanding tribal crab fleets are not taking an equal share yet, "but they're moving in that direction," he said. One of the incentives for Washington was that as tribal crab fleets develop capacity to harvest half the state's shellfish - a right affirmed in 1994 - "more and more of our boats will be going down to Oregon," Anderson said. Conversely, Washington crabbers have been taking about a half million pounds in federal waters off Oregon.ĭual-licensed vessels will be able to fish off both states. "The principal thing here is two states have taken this action, which will enable us independently to take additional actions to stabilize the economic well-being of our coastal commercial crab fishery," Anderson said in a telephone interview from Olympia.ĭata from Oregon indicates its crab fishers take more than 1 million pounds annually out of federal waters adjacent to Washington, and deliver the catch to Oregon ports, he said. The deal requires Oregon vessels crabbing in federal waters off Washington - beyond the state's three-mile jurisdiction and within the 200-mile federal boundary - to have Washington licenses, and vice versa, said Phil Anderson, special assistant to Jeff Koening, head of Washington's Fish and Wildlife Department. Neither state has authority over the other's commercial crab fishermen, but both profit from the arrangement approved Saturday by Washington's Fish and Wildlife Commission, meeting in Olympia, and on Friday by the Oregon panel. SEATTLE Oregon and Washington have reached an agreement to restrict commercial fishing for Dungeness crab in federal waters off each other's coasts, officials said Saturday. Oregon, Washington to Rein in Crab Fishing Off Each Other's Coasts ![]()
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