Title 5 . Fish and Game

Chapter 6 . Transportation, Possession and Release of Live Fish; Aquatic Farming

Section 355. Bristol Bay Commercial Set and Drift Gillnet Sockeye Salmon Fisheries Management and Allocation Plan

5 AAC 06.355. Bristol Bay Commercial Set and Drift Gillnet Sockeye Salmon Fisheries Management and Allocation Plan

(a) The purpose of this management and allocation plan is to ensure an adequate escapement, as determined by the department, of sockeye salmon into the river systems of the Nushagak, Naknek-Kvichak, Egegik, and Ugashik Districts and to distribute, to the extent practicable, the harvestable surplus of sockeye salmon to the set and drift gillnet fisheries for the allocation percentages specified in (b) of this section. This plan also provides management guidelines to the department in an effort to preclude allocations conflicts between various users of this resource.

(b) It is the intent of the Board of Fisheries (board) that Bristol Bay sockeye salmon be harvested in the traditional harvest locations and that historical sockeye salmon catches be allocated between drift and set gillnet fisheries by district. To achieve this allocation, the department shall manage, to the extent practicable, the commercial sockeye salmon fisheries to achieve the allocation percentages established in 5 AAC 06.364 (Naknek-Kvichak District), 5 AAC 06.365 (Egegik District), 5 AAC 06.366 (Ugashik District), and 5 AAC 06.367 (Nushagak District).

(c) The board will consider, to the extent practicable, the following guiding principles when taking actions for proposed regulatory changes regarding Bristol Bay salmon stocks:

(1) priority will be given to achievement of biological escapement goals, to maintaining genetic diversity throughout the Bristol Bay Area and by districts, and to providing a harvestable surplus of salmon to users;

(2) management of Bristol Bay Area salmon districts as terminal fisheries, recognizing that interception between districts within Bristol Bay is unavoidable; utilization of management plans and practices to ensure designated salmon harvest in districts of origin; recognition that designated salmon are Bristol Bay Area Salmon not allocated by the board of the South Unimak and Shumagin Island June salmon fishery specified in 5 AAC 09.365;

(3) for the harvest of surplus salmon, the board adopts the following goals:

(A) salmon will be harvested in an orderly manner;

(B) salmon will be harvested consistent with specific regulatory management plans for each district; and

(C) salmon will be harvested in a way to improve product quality;

(4) use of the best available information presented to the board;

(5) consideration of whether management plans are capable of being implemented and evaluated;

(6) consideration of whether management plans provide tangible benefits to user groups or to conservation with the least risk to existing fisheries and to conservation;

(7) subject to the subsistence priority, consideration of the historical uses of subsistence, commercial gear groups, sport, guided sport, and personal use fisheries.

(d) The department shall manage, subject to existing management plans, fishery openings, closures, and areas to

(1) achieve adequate escapement from all segments of the run by spacing openings throughout the run;

(2) maintain and improve stock specific management through the use of district, subdistrict, and section openings and closures;

(3) distribute fish within individual districts and subdistricts through the spacing and duration of openings;

(4) reduce intensive boundary line fishing through the spacing and duration of openings;

(5) reduce harvest of stocks bound for other districts, subdistricts, or sections in accordance with specific regulatory management plans.

History: Eff. 5/14/98, Register 146

Authority: AS 16.05.060

AS 16.05.251