5 AAC 34.625. Lawful gear for Registration Area O

(a) King crab may be taken only with king crab pots. King crab taken by other means must be returned to the water without further harm.

(b) Pots used to take golden king crab

(1) must have at least four circular escape rings of five and one-half inches minimum inside diameter installed on the vertical plane or have at least one-third of one vertical surface of the pot composed of not less than nine-inch stretched mesh webbing to permit the escapement of undersized golden king crab; and

(2) may be operated only from a shellfish longline; a buoy is not required for each pot, but each end of the longline must be marked by a cluster of four buoys; one buoy in the cluster must be marked in accordance with 5 AAC 34.051 and have the initials "SL" to identify it as a shellfish longline; for purposes of this subsection "a shellfish longline" is a stationary, buoyed, and anchored line with at least 10 shellfish pots attached.

(c) Otter trawls with a ground line or headline exceeding 60 feet in length may not be on board a vessel engaged in the taking or transporting of king crab.

(d) In the Petrel Bank commercial red king crab fishery in Registration Area O, established by emergency order under 5 AAC 34.610(a) , no more than 250 pots may be operated from a validly registered vessel.

(e) Pots used to take red king crab

(1) must have at least one-third of one vertical surface of the pot composed of not less than nine-inch stretched mesh webbing to permit the escapement of undersized red king crab; and

(2) may not be longlined; each pot must be individually buoyed and marked.

(f) A vessel may be registered to fish in the commercial red king crab and golden king crab fisheries at the same time. However, only single line pots may be operated in areas open to red king crab fishing and only longline pots may be operated in areas open to golden king crab fishing.

History: In effect before 1982; am 7/25/82, Register 83; am 6/30/83, Register 86; am 7/12/86, Register 99; am 9/1/96, Register 139; am 8/8/99, Register 151; am 8/24/2002, Register 163; am 8/14/2005, Register 175

Authority: 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.