Bill latest volley in fishing war

OLYMPIA – Trying to broker a truce in a long-running dispute, state lawmakers are considering stripping the state Fish and Wildlife Commission of its role overseeing commercial fishing.

The move – likely to be voted on in a House committee today – caps a tug-of-war with high emotions on both sides.

The nine-member citizen commission, appointed by Gov. Chris Gregoire, oversees fishing and hunting policy.

Critics – including some key lawmakers and Indian tribes – say the current members are biased in favor of sport fishing.

But the commission’s defenders say the group is simply doing the best it can to preserve struggling fish populations. And fishing with a rod instead of a net, they say, is far more selective at a time when the state’s trying to preserve wild fish runs.

The commissioners “are acting on behalf of conservation,” said Ed Wickersham, a sport fisherman from Ridgefield. “They’re frightening interests that have lived by exploiting these resources.”

One of the most high-profile critics of the commission is Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle. He has allowed the Senate to confirm just one of the commissioners, Spokane’s George Orr.

Jacobsen is unhappy that agency director Jeff Koenings – perceived as a commercial-fishing ally – resigned under heavy pressure in December. He’s also offended that the commission snubbed commission vice chairman Fred Shiosaki two years ago, deciding against making the Spokane angler chairman. Shiosaki later resigned from the commission.

“He’s a wonderful gentleman, and they blighted his career at the end,” Jacobsen said.

This year, Jacobsen proposed a bill to shrink the commission, shorten the terms, and strip it of authority to choose the head of the Department of Fish and Wildlife. The governor would do that instead.

“They’ve managed to enrage the tribes, the commercial fishermen, the hunting community. And that’s pretty hard to do,” he said. “They’ve proved it doesn’t work.” The Senate approved the bill and sent it to the House earlier this month.

Jacobsen’s clear about the goal.

“If this bill passes,” he told lawmakers this week, “we neutered ’em.”

Who makes the rules about fish and game has long been a political hot potato. For decades, it was done by state commissioners. In 1987, Gov. Booth Gardner took on the role of appointing a game director. Then, in 1995, voters approved Referendum 45, to return control to a nonpartisan commission. Among those backing the plan: Jacobsen. Now, he says, at least the governor answers directly to voters every four years, unlike appointed commissioners.

The commission’s defenders say it’s impossible to please everyone.

“There’s an inherent frustration,” said Orr. “You negotiate who gets what kind of fish. And when you’re looking at 6 million people, there’s the potential of really pissing people off.”

Still, Orr says that there are problems with some current and former commissioners. Members have been rude to people who came to testify at meetings, he said. And there’s a tendency to micromanage the agency’s professional staff, he said.

The bill is in a House committee, where Chairman Brian Blake, D-Aberdeen, is trying to work out a compromise.

“It really in some ways does boil down to an allocation fight (over fish), and we try and stay out of those in the Legislature,” he said. But Blake said he, too, has grown concerned over Koening’s departure and recent decisions involving guns and hunting on public land.

State Rep. Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda, said Thursday that the latest proposal would:

•Shrink the commission to seven people.

•Have the governor pick the agency head from a list of three candidates provided by the commissioners.

•Have commercial fishing regulated by the director of Fish and Wildlife, probably with help from the governor’s office.

That would at least take some of the pressure off the commissioners, Kretz said.

Kretz says the current commissioners are the best in years. In past years, he said, some commissioners were unwilling to question or overrule the agency’s staff. He worries that the current controversy will result in gun-shy commissioners who rubber-stamp agency employees’ decisions.

A House hearing this week was packed with sport fisherman defending the commission.

Lynnwood angler Wallace Cogley called the criticism “shameful” and said commissioners are simply trying to carry out their orders: to preserve endangered fish.

“They are being beat about the head and shoulders because they are doing their level best to implement the governor’s policy,” he said.

Commercial gill nets can’t tell a wild chinook from a hatchery one with a clipped adipose fin, he said. Sports fishermen are far more selective, he said.

“If I see a fin,” he said, “it never comes out of the water.”