In a major decision a judge has denied the request by a group of commercial crab fishermen for an emergency restraining order that would have required the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to remove its weekly catch limit of 4,500 pounds for Dungeness crab. These fishermen argued that Fish and Wildlife’s new weekly catch limits are “arbitrary and capricious.”
It is was said that a weekly limit of 2,500 pounds was imposed on the industry on Aug. 28, according to court papers, and it was amended to 4,500 pounds on Sept. 1. According to the boat owners the limits are ruining their ability to make a living. Washington’s commercial crab fishing season concludes Sept. 15. Boat owners are getting $2.25 a pound for Dungeness, Breitsprecher said.
Breitsprecher also told that removing the limits on Dungeness crab for the final 10 days of the season would mean a world of difference for his economic circumstances, in paying for his daughter’s college, paying family medical bills and for boat repairs that he has put on hold.
Interim Fish and Wildlife Director Philip Anderson wrote in a declaration that this year, testing and monitoring of crabs, both from samples taken at sea and those sampled from docks, showed that more than 50 percent were judged as “soft.” The request for an emergency restraining order claimed that Fish and Wildlife’s weekly catch limits were based on “a faulty and inaccurate dockside crab inspection,” that concluded that crabs left in an alley in the sun were “soft-shelled.”
