IT’S HARD TO complain about another day of halibut fishing, but the scattershot approach to schedule making by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife has missed the mark this season.
One last day of halibut fishing will be held Saturday off La Push and Neah Bay along the coast and off Sekiu, Port Angeles and Port Townsend along the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound.
It should be two consecutive days of halibut fishing — at least.
It appears halibut anglers in Marine Area 2 (Westport) are 3,600 pounds over quota, but Westport also will be open for Saturday’s fishery. Those fish have to come from somewhere (trimmed from the quotas of other marine areas), so anglers along the North Olympic Peninsula will again bear the brunt of state-level decision making.
What should happen is a closure for Westport on Saturday, so long and thanks for all the fish as it were, and a back-to-back opening either Friday and Saturday or Saturday and Sunday for North Olympic Peninsula marine areas and Puget Sound until the quota is reached.
Looking forward
As for next year, Fish and Wildlife submitted a report with some preliminary thoughts and season examples (none vetted by the public) for the 2018 season at the Pacific Fish Management Council meeting last week in Spokane.
That report, available at tinyurl.com/PDN-WDFWHalibut, acknowledged the stakeholder proposal from the Olympic Peninsula Salmon and Halibut Coalition — a March to October season with a six-fish seasonal bag limit.
The report states “Our analysis of the catch recorded in 2008-2011 indicates 84 percent of Washington’s anglers catch two or fewer fish and 63 percent report catching only one. Therefore, having an annual limit of six fish would have very little impact.”
Very interesting. But Fish and Wildlife believes quota totals would be exceeded during a longer, safer seven-month season due to recent halibut allocations, its estimates of catch per unit of effort, angler effort and higher catch totals in early spring.
Halibut coalition members, however, doubt the state’s numbers.
So the state appears to be heading in the direction of an annual bag limit of two halibut (not well-received by anglers) with fishing open every Saturday and Sunday in May and the first four weekends of June — a total of 16 days.
Again, that’s just an example season, anglers will still have time to weigh in on the process.
What good that does, however, is anybody’s guess.
Anglers meet
Fish and Wildlife biologist Don Velasquez will discuss shrimp biology, and shrimping and crabbing in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound at today’s meeting of the North Olympic Peninsula Chapter of Puget Sound Anglers.
The meeting will be held at Trinity United Methodist Church, 100 S. Blake Ave., with a social half hour and raffle-prize viewing at 6:30 p.m. and a short club meeting at 7 p.m. with Velazquez to follow.
Velasquez holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Oregon State University and a masters in fisheries from the University of Washington.
His graduate work involved optimizing aquaculture conditions for juvenile geoduck clams.
He has worked for the state since 1993. Since 1995 he has been working primarily with crab and shrimp fisheries in Puget Sound.
Refreshments, a raffle for great fishing stuff and a $50 Membership drawing (must be present to win) also are planned. The public is welcome to attend.
Father’s Day shoot
The Wapiti Bowmen Archery Club will host a Father’s Day 3D target shoot at their club and archery range at 374 E. Arnette Road, Port Angeles, on Saturday and Sunday, June 17-18.
The event is open to the public.
Registration opens at 7:30 a.m. each day.
Fees for kids up to age 17 are $8 for one day, $12 for two days.
Adults are $12 for one day, $20 for both.
Senior Pass price rising
There are 417 national parks in the U.S., spanning across more than 84 million acres. And if you’re 62 or older, $10 will get you into all of them for the rest of your life.
It’s not just national parks.
The National Park Service said the $10 Senior Pass provides access to more than 2,000 recreation sites managed by five federal agencies, including the Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
But that price is about to go up significantly. According to the AARP, the lifetime pass for senior citizens will go up to $80 before the end of 2017.
But don’t panic just yet. The National Park Service said the price increase is not expected within the next few months.
The price increase comes after Congress approved the National Park Service Centennial Act in December 2016, which raises fees and sets up an endowment to help pay for projects and visitor services.
If you get a Senior Pass online or through the mail, it adds $10 to the overall fee.
If you don’t want to pay that extra $10, here’s a list of where you can get the pass in-person: tinyurl.com/PDN-SeniorPass.
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Sports reporter/columnist Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
