GOLD BEACH, Ore.—The Fish and Wildlife Commission adopted 2020 Big Game Regulations at its meeting today in Gold Beach. Next year, the Western Oregon deer bag limit will allow for spike harvest with the new bag limit of “one buck with a visible antler.” A new General Season Antlerless Elk Damage Tag in areas of the state with high elk damage will replace 19 controlled hunts and the need to provide damage tags to landowners. Hunters taking advantage of this new opportunity would still need permission to hunt on private land to use the tag and it would be their only elk hunting opportunity. The Commission also directed staff to form a workgroup to continue the big game hunting season and regulations review. The Commission approved funding for one Access and Habitat project, which provides hunting access on private land. Changes to fixed gear fisheries regulations, including those for both commercial and recreational crabbing, were adopted to address challenges presented by changing ocean conditions including increased incidence of whale entanglements. Gear marking of surface buoys will be required of all fisheries that do not already do so beginning Jan. 1, 2020, including recreational crabbers and commercial fixed gear fisheries such as commercial bay crab. New buoy color registration requirements for the commercial ocean crab fishery will also be required. To prepare for future phases of rule-making to reduce the risk of whale entanglements, the Commission set Aug. 14, 2018 as the control date for potential development of future limitation on participation in commercial crabbing during months when whales are most abundant. The Commission also adopted regulations related to Harmful Algal Bloom biotoxin management (particularly domoic acid) in the commercial crab fishery and the commercial ocean Dungeness crab fishery season opening process. ODFW will host a series of public meetings for the commercial ocean Dungeness crab fishery on possible future regulatory measures to reduce whale entanglements this October. Meetings will be held in Coos Bay (Oct. 17), Brookings (Oct. 18), Astoria (Oct. 22) and Newport (Oct. 23). More details about the meetings including locations will be available later in September. Finally, the Commission voted 4-3 to change rules related to the hunting and trapping of Coastal marten. The new rules prohibit any marten harvest west of I-5 and also ban all trapping in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area as well as suspending traps or snares in trees in the Siskiyou and Siuslaw National Forests. The rules are in response to a petition for rulemaking from several environmental groups last year. Coastal martens are a subspecies of Pacific marten with a historical range located west of I-5 and more specifically from Lincoln and Benton counties south to Curry County. The Commission is the rule-making body for fish and wildlife issues in Oregon. Its next meeting is Oct. 10-11 in Ontario.
