5 AAC 39.105. Types of legal gear

(a) All gear shall be operated in a manner conforming to its basic design.

(b) The size of meshes of a gillnet shall be substantially consistent.

(d) Unless otherwise provided in this title, the following are legal types of gear:

(1) a gillnet is a net primarily designed to catch fish by entanglement in the mesh and consisting of a single sheet of webbing hung between cork line and lead line, and fished from the surface of the water;

(2) a set gillnet is a gillnet that has been intentionally set, staked, anchored, or otherwise fixed;

(3) a drift gillnet is a drifting gillnet that has not been intentionally staked, anchored, or otherwise fixed;

(4) a purse seine is a floating net designed to surround fish and which can be closed at the bottom by means of a free-running line through one or more rings attached to the lead line;

(5) a hand purse seine is a floating net designed to surround fish and which can be closed at the bottom by pursing the lead line; pursing may only be done by hand power, and a free-running line through one or more rings attached to the lead line is not allowed;

(6) a beach seine is a floating net designed to surround fish which is set from and hauled to the beach;

(7) power gurdy troll gear consists of a line or lines with lures or baited hooks which are deployed, drawn through the water, and retrieved by means of a power troll gurdy, for which the power source may be hydraulic, electrical or mechanical; power gurdy troll gear does not include hand troll gear;

(8) hand troll gear consists of a line or lines with lures or baited hooks which are drawn through the water from a vessel by hand trolling, strip fishing or other types of trolling, and which are retrieved by hand power or hand-powered crank and not by any type of electrical, hydraulic, mechanical or other assisting device or attachment;

(9) a fish wheel is a fixed, rotating device, with no more than four baskets on a single axle, for catching fish which is driven by river current or other means;

(10) a trawl is a bag-shaped net towed through the water to capture fish or shellfish;

(A) a beam trawl is a trawl with a fixed net opening utilizing a wood or metal beam;

(B) an otter trawl is a trawl with a net opening controlled by devices commonly called otter doors;

(C) a pelagic trawl is a trawl where the net, or the trawl doors or other trawl-spreading device, do not operate in contact with the seabed, and which does not have attached to it any protective device, such as chafing gear, rollers, or bobbins, that would make it suitable for fishing in contact with the seabed;

(11) a pot is a portable structure designed and constructed to capture and retain fish and shellfish alive in the water;

(12) a ring net is a bag-shaped net suspended between no more than two frames; the bottom frame may not be larger in perimeter than the top frame; the gear must be non-rigid and collapsible so that when fishing it does not prohibit free movement of fish or shellfish across the top of the net;

(13) a longline is a stationary buoyed or anchored line or a floating, free drifting line with lures or baited hooks attached;

(14) a shovel is a hand-operated implement for digging clams or cockles;

(15) a mechanical clam digger is a mechanical device used or capable of being used for the taking of clams;

(16) a scallop dredge is a dredge-like device designed specifically for and capable of taking scallops by being towed along the ocean floor;

(17) a fyke net is a fixed, funneling (fyke) device used to entrap fish;

(18) a lead is a length of net employed for guiding fish into a seine or set gillnet;

(19) an anchor is a device used to hold a salmon fishing vessel or net in a fixed position relative to the beach; this includes using part of the seine or lead, a ship's anchor or being secured to another vessel or net that is anchored;

(20) a herring pound is an enclosure used primarily to retain herring alive over extended periods of time;

(21) diving gear is any type of hard hat or skin diving equipment including scuba, a tethered, umbilical, surface-supplied system, and a snorkel;

(22) a hydraulic clam digger is a device using water or a combination of air and water to remove clams from their environment;

(23) a grappling hook is a hooked device with flukes or claws and attached to a line and operated by hand;

(24) a dip net is a bag-shaped net supported on all sides by a rigid frame; the maximum straight-line distance between any two points on the net frame, as measured through the net opening, may not exceed five feet; the depth of the bag must be at least one-half of the greatest straight-line distance, as measured through the net opening; no portion of the bag may be constructed of webbing that exceeds a stretched measurement of 4.5 inches; the frame must be attached to a single rigid handle and be operated by hand;

(25) a mechanical jigging machine is a device that deploys a line with hooks and retrieves that line and hooks with electrical, hydraulic, or mechanically powered assistance; a mechanical jigging machine allows the line with hooks to be fished only in the water column; a mechanical jigging machine must be attached to a vessel registered to fish with a mechanical jigging machine and may not be anchored or operated off the vessel;

(26) an abalone iron is a flat device used for taking abalone and which is more than one inch (24 mm) in width and less than 24 inches (61 cm) in length and with all prying edges rounded and smooth;

(27) a handline is a hand-held line, with one or more hooks attached, which may only be operated manually; a handline is legal gear only for smelt in the Bristol Bay Area, described in 5 AAC 06.100;

(28) dinglebar troll gear consists of one or more lines, retrieved and set with a troll gurdy or hand troll gurdy, with a terminally attached weight from which one or more leaders with one or more lures or baited hooks are pulled through the water while a vessel is making way;

(29) a sea urchin rake is a hand-held implement, no longer than four feet, equipped with projecting prongs used to gather sea urchins;

(30) a cast net is a circular net with a mesh size of no more than one and one-half inches and weights attached to the perimeter which, when thrown, surrounds the fish and closes at the bottom when retrieved.

History: In effect before 1982; am 7/25/82, Register 83; am 4/16/83, Register 86; am 7/12/86, Register 99; am 6/2/88, Register 106; am 6/19/92, Register 122; am 7/16/92, Register 123; am 6/2/95, Register 134; am 9/12/97, Register 143; am 5/31/98, Register 146; am 6/14/2000, Register 154; am 7/5/2000, Register 155

Authority: AS 16.05.251

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