5 AAC 33.370. District 1: Neets Bay Hatchery Salmon Management Plan

(a) The intent of the Board of Fisheries in adopting this management plan is to distribute the harvest of hatchery-produced fall chum and coho salmon in Neets Bay between the purse seine, troll, and drift gillnet fleets. In addition to that goal, the board and the public would like to have a fishery in Neets Bay that produces a quality product that will allow the Southern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association (SSRAA) to meet its corporation escapement goal with the least number of fish and provide the highest possible price to the fishermen.

(b) The department, in consultation with SSRAA, shall manage Neets Bay east of the longitude of the easternmost tip of Bug Island to the closed waters area at the head of the bay to distribute the harvest of Neets Bay hatchery produced salmon between the purse seine, troll, and drift gillnet fleets by setting the fishing times for those fleets as follows:

(1) salmon may be taken by troll gear only during periods established by emergency order;

(2) salmon may be taken by purse seines and drift gillnets only during periods established by emergency order as follows:

(A) openings for seines and gillnets must be rotated between net gear groups with a closure of at least 24 hours between openings; the first opening must be for gillnets;

(B) a gillnet opening must be no less than 24 hours in duration and a seine opening must be no less than 12 hours in duration;

(3) repealed 6/25/89;

(4) repealed 6/25/89;

(5) from the second Sunday in June through the third Sunday in July, the area described in (b) of this section shall be expanded to Neets Bay east of the longitude of Chin Point to the closed waters area at the head of the bay.

(d) Personal use and sport fishing will be allowed in the harvest area whenever SSRAA is not harvesting salmon for its corporation escapement goal and so long as the personal use and sport fishery do not jeopardize the attainment of that goal.

(e) Gear for the personal use fishery is drift gillnets with a maximum length of 50 fathoms. The annual bag and possession limit is 25 salmon.

(f) Waters of Neets Bay east of a line between ADF&G regulatory markers located approximately one mile from the head of the bay are closed to commercial, sport, and personal use salmon fishing from June 15 through November 15.

History: Eff. 5/31/85, Register 94; am 4/18/86, Register 98; am 6/25/89, Register 110; am 6/28/97, Register 142; am 7/26/2003, Register 167

Authority: AS 16.05.060

AS 16.05.251

The Alaska Administrative Code was automatically converted to HTML from a plain text format. Every effort has been made to ensure its accuracy, but neither Touch N' Go Systems nor the Law Offices of James B. Gottstein can be held responsible for any possible errors. This version of the Alaska Administrative Code is current through June, 2006.

If it is critical that the precise terms of the Alaska Administrative Code be known, it is recommended that more formal sources be consulted. Recent editions of the Alaska Administrative Journal may be obtained from the Alaska Lieutenant Governor's Office on the world wide web. If any errors are found, please e-mail Touch N' Go systems at E-mail. We hope you find this information useful. Copyright 2006. Touch N' Go Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.