With the 2011 fruits of a controversial reallocation plan for non-treaty crabbers having been reaped by personal-use gatherers, it's time to say to the piper how many of the Dungeness type you caught.
The mandatory reporting period for the winter catch record card starts Sunday, Jan. 1, with sport crabbers having until Wednesday, Feb. 1, to file the needed information.
This is obligatory for all holders of either short-term (1-3 day versions issued between Sept. 6-Dec. 31) or season-long varieties of the 2011 Puget Sound Crab Endorsement and who additionally took out their winter catch record card.
If you did not request a winter CRC, you do not have to report.
MORE CHANCES TO HUNT
The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission will take public comment in the one o'clock hour at its Friday, Jan. 6, session in Olympia on a proposal to up the numbers of multiple-season hunting permits the fish and wildlife department awards.
Each year, would-be hunters can enter drawings dedicated to either deer and/or elk for a chance to win a special permit that entitles them to hunt all open or general hunting seasons allocated to the three major weapons categories, modern firearms, blackpowder or archery.
COMING SUNDAY
For more details about how and where to make your crab report, the proposed expansion of the multi-season big game permits and more hunting and fishing news, read Sunday's Outdoors Column.
Doug Huddle, the Bellingham Herald's outdoors correspondent since 1983, has written a weekly fishing and hunting column that now appears Sundays. Read his blog and contact him at http://pblogs.bellinghamherald.com/outdoors.
