High and dry
By JEREMIAH O’HAGAN Staff Reporter
Washington state fishing regulations mandate that crab pots be completely covered by water at all tides. This string of pots, left out of the water at low tide on Camano Island, violates those regulations. PHOTO BY JEREMIAH O
When Eric Clark took his dog for a walk on Country Club beach number three Thursday morning, he discovered a string of 18 crab pots marooned by the receding tide.
There were crab in some of them, and Clark figured they’d been out of the water since about 4 a.m.
By 10:30 a.m., the sun was out in force and the beach was heating up.
About 11:30 a.m., a boat motored across the bay toward the beach. Clark thought it might be coming for the pots, but it turned around about 300 yards offshore and headed back.
“To me, it’s a damn shame,” said Don Sawyer, another area resident.
It was clear to Clark and Sawyer that the cage pots had been dropped much nearer shore than common sense dictated.
“No one seems to care,” Sawyer continued.
Clark called Island County Sheriff’s Office. Deputy Brian Legasse responded.
Legasse said he took down the pots’ tag numbers and referred the incident to Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).
Donald Velasquez, with WDFW’s region four office, said the only people crabbing this time of year are the tribes.
Stillaguamish, Swinomish or Tulalip tribes could be fishing in the waters of Port Susan, Velasquez said, but given the area, the pots most likely belong to the Tulalip Tribes.
“The same thing happened once last year,” he said, “and it was linked to Tulalip Tribes.”
Velasquez said Washington state regulations mandate that a pot be completely covered by water at all times, and that as far as he knew, the tribes’ regulations were the same.
Mike McHugh, with Tulalip Fisheries Department, said if the pots belonged to one of their fishermen, such conduct is in violation of the tribes’ regulations and state treaty agreements. In such a case, he said, enforcement officers would attempt to reach the fishermen and review the regulations with them, seeking further action if it was deemed necessary.
Staff Reporter Jeremiah
O’Hagan: 629-8066 ext. 125
or ohagan@scnews.com.
