2024 North of Falcon- Coastal Commercial Fisheries CR-102
2024 North of Falcon- Coastal Commercial Fisheries CR-102
Please note: All comments received by WDFW are part of the public record and will be available for public viewing - so please do not include private information in the text of your comments. Comments are subject to disclosure under the Public Records Act, RCW 42.56.
View the CR-102 Rule Proposal and WAC Text
The proposed rules were developed through the annual North of Falcon salmon season setting process, which began in January 2024, and provide the season schedule for the 2024 fall commercial salmon gillnet fisheries in Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor.
These proposed rules regulate the commercial fisheries in Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor and are part of a comprehensive rulemaking package to implement the new 2024-2025 salmon seasons for Washington State, developed through the broader North of Falcon process pursuant to the Fish and Wildlife Commission’s North of Falcon Policy C-3608 for 2024-2028. As such, while these rules regulate only commercial fisheries, the seasons specified in these proposed rules are part of implementing Willapa Bay-wide commercial and recreational fisheries in a coordinated manner pursuant to the Willapa Bay Salmon Management Policy C-3622. As such, the proposed commercial fishery for 2024-2025 is structured in a manner intended to consider and provide both commercial and recreational fishing opportunities in Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor, while ensuring conservation requirements and management objectives in federal and state laws and regulations, state/tribal harvest management agreements, and Fish and Wildlife Commission policies are met. Even though drafted as amendments to preceding rules, these new amendments function as a coordinated and unitary fishery package for the 2024-2025 fishery season, and thus substantively replace prior years’ fisheries in Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor. Comments should be considered and provided with that understanding.
The intent of this rulemaking package, once adopted, is to replace and supersede the language in WAC 220-354-250 for the Willapa Bay salmon fall fishery and WAC 220-354-290 for the Grays Harbor salmon fall fishery in their entirety. As such, while WDFW is proposing specific revisions to these rules to describe the seasons and dates for these fisheries for 2024, all of the provisions encompassed within WACs 220-354-250 and 220-354-290 are available for public review and comment, and WDFW will consider all public comments received on this rulemaking.
Please review the proposed amendments for each WAC by following the links and then provide your comments below.