Gillnetters oppose WDFW initiative to raise commercial fishing license fees for residents, lower for non-residents
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has proposed an initiative called “Washington’s Wild Future: A Partnership for Fish and Wildlife” Among the policies, it calls for increasing the commercial fishing license fees. The proposed fees would generate close to $4 million in revenue per year, with $700,000 of that coming from license fee changes. Much of the policies in the initiative were modeled after Oregon and Alaska regulation. Essentially, the new legislation would increase the commercial license fee for residential fishermen by an average of 17 percent and decrease the non-resident license fee by 3 percent – something the WDFW calls “equalizing” the fees. For example, a Puget Sound Gillnetting Licenses for salmon currently costs $585 for residential commercial fishers and $890 for non-residents. Read the rest of the story here 17:32
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