Can anyone please link me to an "official" site to see what fish are illegal
in the state of Washington. I did my own search but for some weird reason they are all butt backwards. One site said bowfin are illagel in Washington. And one site specified a particular snakehead as being illegal. So I have no clue. The reason I'm asking is cause I recently inquired about a Florida spotted gar and the person said he can't ship
it to this state cause it was illegal.

Anyway if anyone knows of an "official" site that would
be awesome.

Thanks in advance.

http://www.cites.org/

http://www.invasivespecies.wa.gov/other_priorities_lists.shtml

http://www.invasivespecies.wa.gov/documents/ANSCwatchlist.pdf

Thanks a bunch I'm going to read through them
now.

Those are good links, but to answer your question all 3 fish you mentioned are "ILLEGAL" in WA State.. But you can go to Pet Pourii and buy the Bowfin and Gars though..lol I told them they were illegal a couple years ago and they didn't seem to care..lol

So I was on here bragging about my bowfin not knowing that game an wild life can come kicking in my front door?

And me being new would think a lfs that sells a fish openly is ok. It would have been different if they were like c'mon through the back I got what you need type deal. But man that's crazy.

I had bought a few gars through PP in everett before i found out they were illegal through a different fish forum.. I posted pics of my fish and they erased my thread because i was posting illegal fish..lol I doubt Fish and game will be raiding your house over a bowfin or gar, now if you were posting pics of a Asian Aro i'd be scared to be in your house.. And snakeheads are real risky too..

I blame hippies for not being able to legally own an asian arowana

I know about the snakeheads heck I think people that breed birds know about them lol. I tried to but a golden cross back aro. But at the top of the aquabid it said won't ship to anywhere illegal. Real nice though.

Well either way I'm glad I made a public post about the bowfin jumping out and dieing. But if I here "threat nuturalized" in the middle of the night it's fish and wild life. Haha

P.s. We should
make those links a sticky. Great for newbies like me.

Here's a list i found for Washington..

WASHINGTON:

(i) Family Amiidae: Bowfin, grinnel, or mudfish, Amia calva.

(ii) Family Channidae: China fish, snakeheads: All members of the genus Channa.

(iii) Family Characidae: Piranha: All members of the genera Pygocentrus, Rooseveltia, and Serrasalmus.

(iv) Family Clariidae: Walking catfish: All members of the family.

(v) Family Cyprinidae:
a- Fathead minnow, Pimephales promelas.
b- Grass carp (in the diploid form), Ctenopharyngodon idella.
c- Ide, silver orfe or golden orfe, Leuciscus idus.
d- Rudd, Scardinius erythropthalmus.

(vi) Family Gobiidae: Round goby, Neogobius melanostomus.

(viii) Family Lepiosteidae: Gar-pikes: All members of the family.


And for our Oregon members..

OREGON:

Live specimens of the following fish species may not be imported, possessed, sold, purchased, exhanged, or transported in the state:

(A) Order Amiiformes
Bowfin - Amiidae - Amia calva.
(B ) Order Cypriniformes
(i) Piranha or Caribe - Characidae subfamily Serrasalminae - All species and hybrids except Serrasalmus, Pygocentrus and Pristobrycon pursuant to ORS 498.242 and OAR 635-011-0160(2);
(ii) Walking catfish (ORS 498.242) - Clariidae - All species and hybrids;
(iii) Oriental weatherfish - Cobitidae - Misgurnus anguillicaudatus;
(iv) Ide - Cyprinidae - Leuciscus idus;
(v) Rudd - Cyprinidae - Scardinius erythropthalmus.
(C ) Order Lepisosteiformes
Gar - Lepisosteidae - All species and hybrids.
(D) Order Perciformes
(i) Snakehead - Channidae - Channa All species and hybrids;
(ii) Round Goby - Gobiidae - Neogobius melanostemus;
(iii) Ruffe - Percidae - Gymnocephalus cernuus;
(iv) Zander or Pike-perch - Percidae - Stizostedion lucioperca.
(E) Order Salmoniformes
Pikes, Pickerel - Esocidae - All species and hybrids.


Source: Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife regulations, Oregon Administrative Rules (OAR) 635-056-0050 (Prohibited Species), subd. c.

Link:


http://www.dfw.state.or.us/OARs/56.pdf

The last link I posted also lists the Marine species that are illegal, for us SW folks.

But you can go to Pet Pourii and buy the Bowfin, my buddy is going to be all over this..... never had the interest myself.

On a side note it's all so no good to collect drift wood from beach front parks, I've been told it's a protected natural resource

Shua called the office today and the people he talked too recomended we petition some of these fish. Is that something you guys would take an intreast in? I think it would be a plus on almost all fronts. We as owners don't have to fear getting in trouble for owning a certain fish. Lfs can import and profit from
"new" fish.

Anyway Shua is looking into it. I mean if someone let a Florida spotted gar out into the wild it would probably just die do to climate.

What are the thoughts of the members here??

I would also like to add that petitioning does work. I did it with pitbulls. I forgot the city/county it was but they wanted to ban the dog saying it was a dangerous breed. Well a crap load of people gave pictures of the pits with there family, kids, cats, birds you name it there were pictures of it. The judge seen the pics and nolonger believed that the "breed" was dangerous but there were/are bad apples.

Do an online petition, get people to sign it.

http://www.petitiononline.com/

Dew eeeet!