Date of Adoption: October 17, 2001.

     Purpose: Amend commercial fishing rules.

     Citation of Existing Rules Affected by this Order: Repealing WAC 220-47-801.

     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: This regulation is necessary to remove the 5 1/2 inch maximum gill net mesh size restriction, and it eliminates the purse seine chinook release requirement. Both of these restrictions were intended for chinook protection. Chinook have moved out of the fishing area and into the freshwater streams, and Samish Hatchery has met its chinook escapement goal. So, chinook protection is no longer necessary. Repeal of the gill net maximum mesh size gives fishers the option to employ larger meshed gill nets an target either larger coho (some have been observed in the twenty pound range) or chum salmon. There are harvestable numbers of both species remaining in the nontreaty allocation. Typically, the nontreaty share of both of these species is not fully harvested, but this action may encourage a greater fraction of harvest of the nontreaty chum salmon allocation.

     Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Comply with Federal Statute: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Federal Rules or Standards: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Recently Enacted State Statutes: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.

     Number of Sections Adopted at Request of a Nongovernmental Entity: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.

     Number of Sections Adopted on the Agency's Own Initiative: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 1.

     Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Clarify, Streamline, or Reform Agency Procedures: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.

     Number of Sections Adopted Using Negotiated Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0;      Pilot Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Other Alternative Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.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: October 17, 2001, 11:59 p.m.

October 17, 2001

Evan Jacoby

for Jeff Koenings

Director

     The following section of the Washington Administrative Code is repealed effective 11:59 p.m. October 17, 2001:

WAC 220-47-801

Puget Sound all-citizen commercial salmon fishery. (01-205)

© Washington State Code Reviser's Office