5 AAC 75.003. Emergency order authority

The department may, by emergency order, change bag and possession limits or alter methods and means in sport fisheries. These changes may not reduce the allocation of harvest among other user groups. An emergency order may not supersede bag and possession limits or methods and means established in regulatory management plans established by the Board of Fisheries. The department shall use its emergency order authority to manage sport fishing opportunity in the following circumstances:

(1) The commissioner or an authorized designee may decrease sport fish bag and possession limits and restrict methods and means of harvest by emergency order when

(A) the total escapement of a species of anadromous fish is projected to be less than the escapement goal for that species listed in management plans that have been adopted by the Board of Fisheries or established by the department; or

(B) the recreational harvest must be curtailed in any fishery for conservation reasons; the department may issue a "catch and release only" emergency order when the estimated hooking mortality is not projected to reduce the population of fish below the number required for spawning escapement or, in the case of resident species, below the level required for maintenance of the desired age and size distribution of the population; "catch and release" as a tool to address conservation under this section shall be labeled "conservation catch and release" to differentiate from catch and release regulations adopted by the Board of Fisheries for special management to create diversity in sport fisheries.

(2) The commissioner or an authorized designee may increase sport fish bag and possession limits and liberalize methods and means of harvest by emergency order when

(A) the total escapement of a species of anadromous fish is projected to exceed the escapement goal for that species listed in management plans that have been adopted by the Board of Fisheries or established by the department, if the total harvest under the increased bag and possession limit will not reduce the escapement below the escapement goal; or

(B) hatchery-produced fish escape through existing fisheries to designated harvest areas in numbers that exceed broodstock needs, any natural spawning requirements, or cost recovery goals of private nonprofit hatcheries; the intent of this subparagraph is to allow harvest when there are no other competing user groups.

(3) For purposes of data collection to improve harvest or stock assessment, or for purposes of enforcement of bag and size limits, the commissioner or an authorized designee may establish, by emergency order, times and areas when anglers may not fillet, mutilate, or otherwise disfigure a specific species of fish in a manner that would prevent species identification, examination of the adipose fin of salmonids, recovery of tags, or determination of the number, sex, age, or length of fish taken until the fish are brought to shore and offloaded from a vessel or removed from a shoreline fishing site. The commissioner or an authorized designee may also require in the emergency order that certain parts of a fish remain attached for the purpose of species identification or data collection. However, during these periods, an angler may gill and gut a fish before the fish is brought to shore and offloaded from a vessel or removed from a shoreline fishing site. This section does not prohibit the consumption or preservation of fish aboard a vessel. For the purposes of this section, "shoreline fishing site" means the shoreline where the fish is hooked and removed from the water and becomes part of the angler's bag limit.

History: Eff. 7/26/90, Register 115; am 3/13/2004, Register 169

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.