Northwest Fishing Reports

I was fishing Shilshole bay this last Sat. Caught nothing, zip. When I retrieved my boat at the launch and whill getting ready to leave I discussed with a couple other fissherman about their day. Both guys I talked with told about previous trips and problems with commercial crabbers dumping and littering the public ramp with 100's of dead undersize crabs. I have talked with enforcement about his and they ahve had some reports about this kind of activity, but nothing on the scale these guys were talking about.

I am asking for all fishing persons to report such activity to enforemnet and take pictures and record license plate number boat decal # info. This info should passed onto enforce. If and when tis happens, the perps should be prosicuted to the fullest extent allowed by law enforcement. Their crab license should revoked and never permitted to fish again, period.

Thanks for rading my post

Bud

WHAT IS UP WITH ALL THE GUYS LOOKING AT THIS POST AND NO REPLIES. IF THIS REALLY HAPPENS ANYTIME, I AM CONCERNED. SIGN ME OFF AS PISSED OFF

That's messed up. Never fished there, but you would think there would be someone there that saw that happen, or a fish checker. Was it WDFW you talked to? If so, hopefully they monitor the ramp. It might not even be commercial. Just last year there was a story in the paper about illegal under size and female crabs being sold to local businesses.

The 2 guys I talked with were locals, just out for the day fishing. I started conversing with one about his fishing experience and he told me about the incident. I started to personally research what happened. Fisheries enforcement gets complaints about illegal crabbing and dumping, but have not heard of anything on this scale. I just posted a copy of my 1st posted comment to the WFWD Facebook page. I guess I will see what happens.

wherearethefish wrote:The 2 guys I talked with were locals, just out for the day fishing. I started conversing with one about his fishing experience and he told me about the incident. I started to personally research what happened. Fisheries enforcement gets complaints about illegal crabbing and dumping, but have not heard of anything on this scale. I just posted a copy of my 1st posted comment to the WFWD Facebook page. I guess I will see what happens.

I'm guessing nothing will happen as the crabbers are most likely Native. You can video the proceedings, give it WDFW who will in turn give it to the tribes justice system.

All you can do is report it and document it if you witness it. It is probably tribal fishermen, I see no reason why anyone would do this sort off thing in the first place, unless they got caught, or were in danger of getting caught with undersize crabs by enforcement. When you report it, make sure you contact WDFW enforcement, not the cops, because 911 doesn't know what to do with those calls. They patrol the crab fishery pretty hard, but the most egregious violations usually come from the treaty fishermen, so that has to be dealt with in house. That means tribal law enforcement, which is pretty lax on the rules, because you know the tribal cop has his crab pots out just like the rest of them.

Are a lot of the tribal crab fishermen using the public ramp at Shilshole? Seems like an odd place to dump illegal crab unless you saw a cop car passing by at the time you were unloading and would the tribe worry about local police? Not saying it isn't true, but now we're on to the indians did it....

Shilshole Bay ramp is a interesting launch. When I fish 4 mile rock or West point I launch there. One day there were 3 dead sea lions in the water on the ramp.Natives unload their nets right there. They unload to a pickup truck and head back out to refill. As far as crabbing goes. Pots get emptied or stolen all the time. I know of a guy who crabs with no limits. Hes a big time lawyer and keeps both male and females. There are lots of tribal and non tribal raping of our waters. I crab Camano a lot. I have never been checked at the launch in my 25 plus years of crabbing.There are a couple types of crabs that just aren't great table fare. Also disgruntled fisherpeople tend to add pounds on their catch and make the natives look worse by saying they saw this happening. I seldom trust locals of any area.

it just seems that the state and Native tribes need to talk. Unfortunate..