Crab pots vs WA. State Ferries

It should be an easy fix. In the Fish and Game Regulation Book. It should say that no traps are allowed with 200 or 300 yards on either side of a marked ferry route or in a navigation channel that is narrower than that.

Not hard and would only take a few quarts more of ink for the books when they print them. The ferry prop repair savings would pay for the ink.

Anything found inside the designated areas should be fair game to move, take, or run over at will. No exceptions.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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Any political geeks aware the issues involved with Hardee's suggestion? Would Indian treaties, various game departments, national government get involved?
 
How "defined" are the ferry routes? For instance, depending on the tides, the ferry track from Pt. Townsend to Whidbey Is. can vary widely from one run to the next. Others, like Rich Passage, are more constrained.

I'm sure that the tide state for any given run affects the track of the ferries and could make the 200-300 yard clearance zone too narrow to be very effective.
 
I smell something fishy. not the conspiracy type person but they have had crabbing and ferries for ever and never this much trouble. So are people putting pots out in the wrong place? are ferries not making any effort to miss them? looking at the photos it looks like larger line then I would use ( but its photos so hard to tell) so it this commercials , regardless of color, trying to get the state to impose more restrictions on private crabbers? Why is there a increased problem this year??

With the decreased fishing opportunity this year many people are crabbing a lot more because its the only game in town. Lots to think about.
 
I'm not sure that any reasonable regulation would matter. I see folks put their crab pots in the direct pathway of the Alaska Ferry in Bellingham all of the time...when the Ferry is at the dock and loading passengers.
 
In my observations up here, the WA ferries can vary routes quite dramatically. For example, in a strong westerly, especially in an ebb tide, the ferries out of Anacortes sometimes go up the Bellingham channel on the east side of Cypress Island instead of their normal route thru Thatcher Pass and the west side of Blakely. Occasionally, you see them take the passage btwn Blakely and Willow Islands instead of the more normal route to the west of Willow Island.

There also seem to be a lot of small, light-weight pots (some with floating lines not weighted down properly). When the currents are strong, these pots get dragged any where. More than once I've had them tangle up with my leaded line where my 40+ pound pot stops them.
 
a buddy of mine works for a commercial prop company. Guess what he has lined up for the coming weeks. He messaged me and said his company is doing all the prop repairs for WADOT. :lol:
 
localboy":34a48qfd said:
a buddy of mine works for a commercial prop company. Guess what he has lined up for the coming weeks. He messaged me and said his company is doing all the prop repairs for WADOT. :lol:
Click to expand...
Interesting. Wonder where he's placing his crab pots?
 
Pandion":yrrjplyr said:
localboy":yrrjplyr said:
a buddy of mine works for a commercial prop company. Guess what he has lined up for the coming weeks. He messaged me and said his company is doing all the prop repairs for WADOT. :lol:
Click to expand...
Interesting. Wonder where he's placing his crab pots?
Click to expand...

:lol: :idea: :evil: :wink:
 
I ride the Port Townsend to Whidbey ferry frequently. There is a ferry route marked on the chart, but there are times that they do deviate from that route, yes, but if it was clear of traps, maybe they wouldn't.

Maybe good line cutters would be a good investment.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
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