WDFW To Hold Meeting On WashDOT Request To Close Certain Fishing Activities Near Ferry Docks

WDFW will hold a public meeting next Tuesday afternoon to talk about a proposal to close some fishing activities in the immediate vicinity of 19 state ferry terminals on Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands.

Done at the request of the Washington Department of Transportation to reduce damage to its fleet from ropes, nets and other fishing gear that sometimes get stuck in propellers, if the proposal is adopted it would essentially prohibit boat-based crabbing and shrimping as well as commercial purse seining and gillnetting via closure zones encompassing the waters 400 yards off the end of ferry docks and 100 yards to either side of them.

It would NOT affect:

• Trolling or jigging for salmon or fishing for lingcod and other species in front of ferry docks;
• Crabbing or fishing from public piers next to ferry docks such as those at the Mukilteo and Point Defiance terminals;
• County and other ferry terminals.

For sportsmen, the key word in the current proposal is “stationary” gear such as crab and shrimp gear, which includes a buoy, rope and baited pot. If approved, you wouldn’t be able to drop pots right in front of the terminal, which is pretty dumb anyway, what with your name and address on the buoy and the price of gear these days.

Asked for evidence that fishing gear is causing damage to state ferries, WashDOT spokesman John Vezina shared a spreadsheet detailing 30 repair jobs totaling $6.8 million to fix damage from crab pots to nearly of all the ferries in the state fleet since July 2021.

“We typically hire divers 10 to 12 times per year for seal inspections at $6,000 per dive, which about one-third of the time includes unwrapping crab pot line from the seal area. We have rope guards in place, which helps some, but not always. We did an in-water repair on Tacoma two to three years ago, which was about $95,000,” Vezina added.

He pointed to $365,000 to drydock the Suquamish to refurbish some stern seals and said the Tacoma was also drydocked earlier this month because a crab pot had damaged its propulsion seals, he said.

“Oil does not leak out, but salt water leaks into our oil, which creates long-term issues. This happens a few times some years – more often others,” Vezina said.

Each potential closure area equates to about 8.25 acres for a total of 157 acres of vast Puget Sound overall.

WDFW’s informational meeting on the proposal will be held from 3-4:30 p.m. March 4 via Zoom. For more details and a link to provide comments, go here. You can also email thoughts to ferriesandfishinggear@publicinput.com or by leaving a voicemail at (855) 925-2801 (enter project code 10992).

Given when the rule proposal was filed last month, it may or may not go into effect in time for this year’s shrimp season, according to a WDFW spokesman.