## Facts

- The Washington Legislature enacted RCW 75.12.650, prohibiting use of “angling” or “personal use” (sports-type) gear for commercial salmon fishing.
- The Washington Kelpers Association represented commercial salmon fishers who used sports-type gear and were affected by the prohibition.
- In 1969, the Department of Fisheries issued nearly 2,800 commercial salmon licenses; about half were commercial trolling licenses held by fishers using sports-type gear rather than fixed commercial trolling gear.
- The State asserted the restriction addressed increased sports-gear use in commercial operations and prevented sport fishers from using commercial licenses to evade sport catch limits.
- The Department of Fisheries administered a broad salmon conservation program, including habitat protection, stream access improvements, and hatchery operations.

## Issues

1. Whether RCW 75.12.650 was a valid exercise of the police power because it bore a real and substantial (reasonable) relation to fisheries conservation and management objectives.
2. Whether the statute violated equal protection by creating an unconstitutional classification among commercial fishers based on the type of gear used.

## Decision

- The Washington Supreme Court reversed the trial court and upheld RCW 75.12.650 as constitutional.
- The court held the gear restriction was reasonably related to legitimate conservation and management objectives, including enforcement and separation of sport and commercial fishing.
- The court held the classification between commercial fishers using sports-type gear and those using other commercial gear was rational and not invidious, and therefore did not violate equal protection.
- Enforcement of the prohibition by the Department of Fisheries was permitted to proceed.

## Legal Principles

- Legislation enacted under the police power is constitutional if it is reasonably related to a legitimate public purpose and is not arbitrary or capricious.
- In natural resource conservation and fisheries regulation, courts generally defer to legislative judgments about methods of regulation, including gear and method-of-take restrictions, when supported by a rational basis.
- Equal protection permits classifications affecting economic interests when the classification bears a rational relation to legitimate governmental objectives; economic disadvantage alone does not establish a constitutional violation.

## Conclusion

The court sustained Washington’s statutory ban on sports-type gear in commercial salmon fishing, holding that the legislature could rationally use gear restrictions as part of conservation and enforcement policy and could distinguish among commercial fishers by gear type without violating equal protection.


Wash. Kelpers Ass’n v. State, 81 Wash. 2d 410, 502 P.2d 1170 (Wash. 1972) (en banc)