Title 5 . Fish and Game

Chapter 77 . Personal Use Fishery

Section 540. Upper Cook Inlet Personal Use Salmon Fishery Management Plan

5 AAC 77.540. Upper Cook Inlet Personal Use Salmon Fishery Management Plan

(a) Salmon may be taken for personal use under this section only under a personal use permit issued under 5 AAC 77.015 and 5 AAC 77.525; in addition to the requirements under 5 AAC 77.015, a person

(1) shall, before a permit may be issued, show the person's resident sport fish license, or proof, satisfactory to the department, that the person is exempt from licensing under AS 16.05.400 ; the person's sport fish license number shall be recorded on the permit;

(2) shall record all fish harvested on the permit, in ink, immediately upon harvesting the fish; for the purpose of this paragraph, "immediately" means before concealing the salmon from plain view or transporting the salmon from the fishing site;

(3) shall return the permit to the department by the date specified on the permit.

(b) Salmon may be taken with a set gillnet in the Central District as follows:

(1) from June 15 through June 24;

(2) fishing periods will be daily from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.;

(3) repealed 6/22/2002;

(4) salmon may be taken only from ADF&G regulatory markers located at the mouth of the Kasilof River to ADF&G commercial fishing regulatory markers located approximately one mile from the mouth on either side of the Kasilof River; fishing is prohibited beyond one mile from the mean high tide mark and is also prohibited within the flowing waters or over the stream bed or channel of the Kasilof River at any stage of the tide;

(5) salmon may be taken only by set gillnets as follows:

(A) a set gillnet may not exceed 10 fathoms in length, six inches in mesh size, and 45 meshes in depth;

(B) no part of a set gillnet may be operated within 100 feet of another set gillnet;

(C) a person may not operate more than one set gillnet; the permit holder shall attend the set gillnet at all times when it is being used to take fish;

(D) only one set gillnet may be operated per household;

(6) the annual limit is as specified in 5 AAC 77.525.

(c) Salmon may be taken by dip net in the Kenai and Kasilof Rivers as follows:

(1) in the Kenai River, as follows:

(A) from July 10 through July 31, seven days per week, from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.; the commissioner may extend, by emergency order, the personal use fishery to 24-hours per day if the department determines that the abundance of the Kenai River late-run sockeye salmon is greater than two million fish;

(B) the annual limit is as specified in 5 AAC 77.525, except that only one king salmon may be retained per household;

(C) from a boat, in the area from an ADF&G regulatory marker located near the Kenai city dock upstream to the downstream side of the Warren Ames Bridge;

(D) from shore, in the area from ADF&G regulatory markers located on the Cook Inlet beaches outside the terminus of the river upstream to the downstream side of the Warren Ames Bridge, except dipnetting is closed on the north shore from an ADF&G regulatory marker located below the end of Main Street, upstream to an ADF&G regulatory marker located near the Kenai City Dock;

(2) in the Kasilof River, as follows:

(A) from June 25 through August 7, 24-hours per day;

(B) the annual limit is as specified in 5 AAC 77.525, except that king salmon may not be retained and any king salmon caught must be released immediately and returned to the water unharmed;

(C) from ADF&G regulatory markers located on the Cook Inlet beaches outside the terminus of the river upstream for a distance of one mile.

(d) Salmon may be taken by dip net in Fish Creek only as follows:

(1) the commissioner will open, by emergency order, the personal use dip net fishery in Fish Creek from July 10 through July 31, if the department projects that the escapement of sockeye salmon into Fish Creek will be above the upper end of the escapement goal of 70,000 fish;

(2) the annual limit is a specified in 5 AAC 77.525, except that no king salmon may be retained and any king salmon caught must be returned to the water unharmed;

(3) from a boat or shore, in those waters upstream from ADF&G regulatory markers located on both sides of the terminus of Fish Creek, to ADF&G regulatory markers located approximately one-quarter mile upstream from Knik-Goose Bay Road.

(e) Repealed 6/22/2002.

(f) A person may retain flounder incidentally caught when fishing for salmon in the Cook Inlet Area under this section. A person may retain up to 10 flounder under this subsection per year and must record those flounder retained by the person on that person's permit specified in (a) of this section.

History: Eff. 6/7/95, Register 135; am 9/29/95, Register 135; am 5/31/96, Register 138; am 6/21/97, Register 142; am 5/8/98, Register 146; am 6/13/99, Register 150; am 6/22/2002, Register 162; am 6/11/2005, Register 174

Authority: AS 16.05.060

AS 16.05.251