EMERGENCY RULES
FISH AND WILDLIFE
Date of Adoption: May 12, 2000.
Purpose: Amend commercial fishing rules.
Citation of Existing Rules Affected by this Order: Amending WAC 220-33-060 and 220-44-020.
Statutory Authority for Adoption: RCW 75.08.080.
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: On May 3, 2000, the Fish and Wildlife Commission approved revised provisions for the emerging commercial [fishery] for sardine. The prohibition of retention of sardine in existing fisheries becomes unnecessary with the establishment of this new fishery. The fishery is scheduled to open on May 15, 2000, and 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Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Comply with Federal Statute: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Federal Rules or Standards: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Recently Enacted State Statutes: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted at Request of a Nongovernmental Entity: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted on the Agency's Own Initiative: New 5, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Clarify, Streamline, or Reform Agency Procedures: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted Using Negotiated Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Pilot Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Other Alternative Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.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: May 15, 2000, 12:01 a.m.
May 12, 2000
J. P. Koenings
Director
by Larry Peck
Notwithstanding the provisions of WAC 220-33-060:
(1) Effective May 15, 2000, until further notice, it is lawful to retain sardines taken with dip bag net gear in the Columbia River. The smelt dip bag net fishery license is the license required to operate a dip bag net for sardines in the Columbia River.
(2) Effective June 1, 2000, until further notice, it is lawful to retain sardines taken in the anchovy or herring fisheries in the Columbia River, as provided for in WAC 220-33-060.
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Notwithstanding the provisions of WAC 220-44-020:
(1) It is lawful to fish for and retain sardines as provided for in Chapter 220-88C WAC.
(2) Sardines may not be retained in the smelt, anchovy and candlefish fisheries provided for in this section.
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(1) The Director designates the coastal sardine fishery as an emerging commercial fishery for which a vessel is required. It is unlawful to fish for, possess or deliver sardines taken for commercial purposes from Washington territorial waters west of the Bonilla-Tatoosh Line, west of Grays Harbor, west of Willapa Bay, west of the Buoy 10 line at the mouth of the Columbia River, or waters of the Exclusive Economic Zone unless the operator of the vessel has an emerging commercial fisheries license and a valid coastal sardine trial fishery permit.
(2) After May 15, 2000, until further notice, sardines may not be taken or delivered from the above waters with any license other than an emerging commercial fishery license.
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(1) The total allowable catch in the coastal sardine emerging commercial fishery is 1,000 metric tons each month, beginning May 15, 2000, through June 14, 2000, and from the 15th of each month through the 14th of the following month thereafter, for the remainder of the fishery. The Director may allow any unharvested amount from a previous month to be taken in the next following monthly period.
(2) It is unlawful to retain any other species of fish or shellfish taken in the coastal sardine emerging commercial fishery except mackerel, anchovy and squid.
(3) It is unlawful for any salmon to be taken aboard a vessel participating in the coastal sardine emerging commercial fishery, and any salmon within the seine must be released or dip netted from the net prior to the completion of each set.
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(1) Each vessel operator participating in the coastal sardine emerging commercial fishery must agree to allow department authorized observers on a minimum of fifty percent of the vessel trips. Vessel operators may hire their own observers, provided the observer meets department criteria, or vessel operators may satisfy the observer requirement by paying to the department the sum of $100 for each trip from which a landing of any fish or shellfish is made, or a vessel trip during which an observer is aboard. If the vessel operator chooses to make payment to the department to satisfy the observer requirement, the payment is due to the department within ten days of the landing of the vessel.
(2) Each vessel operator participating in the coastal sardine emerging commercial fishery must notify the department during official business hours (Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., daily) at least 24 hours prior to leaving on a vessel trip (notification of a Saturday, Sunday, or Monday trip must be made the previous Friday). On the department's sardine message hotline the vessel operator must provide the license holder's name, the vessel name, telephone contact number for the operator, time and location of departure and estimated time of return.
(2) Department samplers may retain up to 500 sardine from each trip for biological information gathering.
(3) Each vessel operator must maintain a monthly logbook for each calendar month, whether or not fishing activity occurs during that calendar month, and, if fishing occurs, make a complete and accurate record of the location of each set, the approximate poundage of sardines taken in each set, all by-catch encountered, whether landed aboard the vessel or not, and, if the by-catch includes salmon, the number and species of the salmon. The log book must be received by the department by the 15th day of each following month.
(4) Failure to comply with the observer, notification, sampling, and logbook requirements will void the trial fishery permit.
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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.