>Jay DeLong
Jay, Dave and all,
What a thought provoking and enlightening thread this has become!
All this after my past weekend out here in Washington state (making
efforts to be law-abiding and conscientious) while collecting 'common'
critters for my cold-salt water tank. I'm out on a city pier with a hook and
line so that I might nab a few shiner perch. Meanwhile, there's one guy out
there with a bucket load of four to six inch blackmouth (King
Salmon/chinook). He's telling me that it's OK since they're just trout and
there's no limit on size, or amount. He had at least 15 he had caught with a
small jig.
There's another trio with about thirty pile perch suffocating in a bucket.
They told me they were feeding them to their pets. And, further out on the
pier, a kid with his family sadistically cutting up a writhing octopus
they'd caught to use for bait. And I'm out there, with a couple of fish in
my bucket....it's "OK" as long as I'm going to eat them. (yea, I'm saving
them up for Y2K disaster!).
I've attempted to get a collecting license and our state is indeed very
strict, so I've got a fishing license instead. Some I've spoken with have
been sympathetic though and I've gotten the feeling from them that as far as
they were concerned, it was kind of a 'don't ask, don't tell' type of
situation. And, stick to the common stuff and what's listed in regulations
as food fish-non salmon and edible inverts and mollusks (which includes just
about everything in some cultures).
I'll make this short...I could go on and on of course......Aghhhhh.
Jay, in my conversations with those in power, I have been told that
Washington state would indeed be open to development of another level of
license for selective collecting. They told me that it's something they've
considered but just haven't gotten around to doing anything about it. If
some of us in NANFA could indeed give a push, we might just accomplish
something here. No guarantees of course but it's worth a try. I'll write
some letters if it'll help. Lets see if we can get this thing rolling.
Richard
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