Title 5 . Fish and Game

Chapter 56 . Personal Use Fishery

Section 75. Russian River Sockeye Salmon Management Plan

5 AAC 56.075. Russian River Sockeye Salmon Management Plan

(a) The purpose of this management plan is to ensure an adequate escapement, as determined by the department, of sockeye salmon into the Russian River system and to provide management guidelines to the department to reduce conflicts between various users of this resource. Because early and late Russian River system sockeye salmon are discrete stocks with established escapement goals, these stocks shall be managed by the department as a separate entity without regard to Kenai River system sockeye salmon run size, except as specified in this section.

(b) Early Russian River sockeye salmon stocks have been harvested primarily by the sport fishery since 1974. Since the bulk of the early Kenai River sockeye salmon run (those salmon passing the department sonar counter located near Soldotna before June 21) is comprised of Russian River sockeye salmon stocks, the department shall manage the early sockeye salmon stocks to achieve the escapement goals for the Kenai and Russian Rivers

(c) Late Russian River sockeye salmon stocks are harvested in both the Cook Inlet commercial salmon gillnet, and Kenai and Russian Rivers sport fisheries. The department shall manage the fisheries to achieve the escapement goal of sockeye salmon into the Russian River upstream of the department's counting weir at the outlet of Lower Russian Lake. If inseason restrictions are necessary to meet the escapement goal, the department shall restrict Kenai River drainage sport fisheries as described in (d) of this section. Since, at present, it is not possible to separate the harvest of late Russian River sockeye salmon from other sockeye salmon stocks in Cook Inlet, restrictions on the commercial fishery to conserve Russian River sockeye salmon and meet the escapement goal shall be limited to meeting the inriver goals for the Kenai River late-run sockeye salmon, as specified in 5 AAC 21.360.

(d) If the department is not able to project that the escapement goal of late-run Russian River sockeye salmon will be achieved the commissioner shall, by emergency order, modify the Kenai River drainage sport and personal use fisheries to achieve the escapement goal by using the following options, selected at the discretion of the commissioner:

(1) a reduction of bag and possession limit to two or one sockeye salmon in the Kenai and Russian Rivers fly-fishing-only waters described in 5 AAC 56.023(c) and (d);

(2) a prohibition on sockeye salmon fishing in the Kenai and Russian Rivers fly-fishing-only waters upstream from the ferry crossing on the Kenai River;

(3) a prohibition on sockeye salmon fishing in all waters of the Kenai and Russian Rivers fly-fishing-only waters;

(4) a prohibition on sockeye salmon fishing from the confluence of the Kenai and Russian Rivers downstream to, and including, Skilak Lake.

(e) It is the intent of the Board of Fisheries (board) that the department use, to the extent practicable, the least restrictive of the individual or combined options under (d) of this section to achieve the late-run Russian River sockeye salmon escapement goal. The department should, to the extent practicable, use the options under (d) of this section, to avoid the necessity for complete closures by initiating early, less restrictive options, as opposed to later, more restrictive actions.

(f) The department will to the extent practicable, conduct habitat assessments on a schedule that conforms to the board's triennial meeting cycle. If assessments demonstrate a net loss of riparian habitat caused by noncommercial fishermen, the department is requested to report those findings to the board and submit proposals to the board for appropriate modification of this plan.

History: Eff. 6/11/2005, Register 174

Authority: AS 16.05.060

AS 16.05.251

Editor's note: Before Register 174, July 2005, the substance of 5 AAC 56.075 appeared in 5 AAC 21.361.