-- Jay DeLong Olympia, WA>To: "Ted Clayton" <tedclayton_at_tenforward.com> >From: Jay DeLong <thirdwind_at_att.net> >Subject: Re: Collecting Legalities > >Hi Ted. >I'm not sure what conclusions you drew from my response, but there's >nothing sinister in the state's regulations. WDFW is a fishing agency at >heart and they don't have the personnel or interest to deal with aquarium >fish collecting. In fact, the folks that developed these rigid regs are >the enforcement folks-- they're the ones given the responsibility by WDFW >of setting these regulations. They are making their own enforcement jobs >much easier by simply banning fish collecting, using the argument that >seines and dips nets and such could negatively impact protected salmonid >stocks. Yes, it would be better and make more sense to regulate the types >of gear, and when and where they can be used, but WDFW isn't going to >allocate the time and money and personnel to something that has seemingly >little interest, and that won't change unless people like yourself and >others can demonstrate you have clout or money or something to get their >attention. I don't think there's any across the board law anyway like you >mention-- you can capture crayfish and aquatic inverts that aren't protected. > >Take heart in one thing-- the same people recently rewrote the regulation >language involving collecting marine organisms, and you can catch and keep >inverts and fishes and such. Just check the regulations that apply to >various marine regions and they'll tell you what you can catch and how >many. You can find the regs on the WDFW website. The regs aren't >specific, which is a good thing in this case. All food/sport animals that >aren't listed by name fall under their own category which includes all >sorts of aquatic critters. The problem is that unless you have chillers >on your tanks you can't keep them alive! > >Any, take care and realize that WDFW has their own priorities. Last time >I dealt with them they had 2 non-game fish biologists and hundreds of >salmon people. In Washington state, salmon rule! > >Jay DeLong > >At 11:22 AM 2/22/01 -0800, you wrote: >>Hi Jay, >> >>Thanks alot for your straightforward description of the regulatory >>realities concerning native fishes. >> >>The situation seems unfortunate. Where risk and hazard are present, like >>importing invasive foreign species, I can understand prohibitions. An >>across-the-board outlawing of the gathering & keeping of every sort of >>native aquatic specie ... this seems to have little basis as a sensible >>precaution. >> >>Of course, I too live on Planet Earth, Twenty First Century, and it is >>not difficult to figure out what is really happening. What a shame. >> >>Thanks again, >> >>Ted
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