Section 5 AAC 28.647 - Aleutian Islands Subdistrict Pacific Cod Management Plan(a) This management plan governs the harvest of Pacific cod in the Aleutian Islands Subdistrict, including the Adak Section. For the purposes of this section, the (1) Aleutian Islands Subdistrict is comprised of the state waters in the Aleutian Islands District west of 170° W. long.; and(2) Adak Section is comprised of the state waters of the Aleutian Islands Subdistrict between 175° W. long. and 178° W. long.(b) Each year, the commissioner shall open and close, by emergency order, a parallel season in the Aleutian Islands Subdistrict, except the Adak Section, to coincide with the initial federal season in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Area. The commissioner shall open and close, by emergency order, the parallel season during which the use of the same gear allowed in the federal Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Area Pacific cod season is permitted, unless that gear is prohibited under 5 AAC 28.050.(c) The commissioner shall open and close, by emergency order, a state-waters season in the Aleutian Islands Subdistrict as follows: (1) the Adak Section shall open January 1;(2) all waters of the Aleutian Islands Subdistrict shall open or close as follows: (A) the fishing season for nonpelagic trawl gear, pot gear, longline gear, hand troll gear, and mechanical jigging machines shall open February 1 at noon Alaska Time or four days after the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands parallel "A" season for the catcher-vessel greater than or equal to 60 feet in overall length pot gear fishery is closed, whichever occurs first;(B) the fishing season for vessels over 60 feet in overall length using pot gear shall close when 25 percent of the guideline harvest level has been taken by those vessels or December 31, whichever occurs first; the restrictions under this paragraph do not apply to a season reopened under (k) of this section;(C) except as otherwise specified in this chapter, when a state-waters season is open, the parallel season for the applicable gear type and vessel length is closed.(3) the state-waters season shall close when the guideline harvest level is taken or on December 31, whichever occurs first; except as otherwise specified in this chapter; all parallel Pacific cod seasons are closed during the state-waters season;(d) During a state-waters season, (1) the 2019 guideline harvest level for Pacific cod in the Aleutian Islands Subdistrict is 31 percent of the estimated total allowable harvest of Pacific cod for the federal Aleutian Islands Subarea; (A) if the guideline harvest level established under this paragraph is achieved in a calendar year, the guideline harvest level will increase by 4 percent of the estimated total allowable harvest of Pacific cod for the federal Aleutian Islands Subarea beginning the next calendar year, but may not exceed 39 percent of the estimated total allowable harvest or 15 million pounds;(B) if the guideline harvest level established under this paragraph is not achieved during two consecutive calendar years, the guideline harvest level will be reduced by 4 percent of the estimated total allowable harvest of Pacific cod for the federal Aleutian Islands Subarea beginning the next calendar year, but may not be reduced below 15 percent of the estimated total allowable harvest;(C) a guideline harvest level is considered to have been achieved under this subsection if, by November 15, 90 percent of that guideline harvest level is projected to be harvested by the end of that calendar year;(2) Pacific cod may be taken only with groundfish pots, mechanical jigging machines, longline, nonpelagic trawl, and hand troll gear;(3) a vessel used to harvest Pacific cod in the Aleutian Islands Subdistrict with (A) longline gear, may not be more than 58 feet in overall length;(B) nonpelagic trawl gear or mechanical jigging machines may not be more than 60 feet in overall length;(C) except as otherwise provided in (k) of this section, pot gear may not be more than 100 feet in overall length.(4) a vessel operator may be concurrently registered to harvest Pacific cod with mechanical jigging machines and longline gear, but may not be concurrently registered to harvest Pacific cod with any other gear types;(5) a vessel's gear registration may be changed during a state-waters season to a different gear registration if the owner, or owner's agent, submits a written request for a change in registration by mail, facsimile, or in person, to the department office in Dutch Harbor, or other locations specified by the department for validation, and that registration has been validated by the department; a vessel may not fish outside of the designated registration area; a vessel may not change registration while unprocessed fish are on board the vessel;(6) a vessel may harvest up to 150,000 round pounds of Pacific cod per day and may not have more than 150,000 round pounds of unprocessed Pacific cod on board the vessel at any time; a vessel may not have on board the vessel more processed fish than the round weight equivalent of the fish reported on ADF&G fish tickets;(7) all Pacific cod taken must be retained; any overage of a limit specified in (6) of this subsection must be immediately reported to the department by the vessel operator; all proceeds from the sale of Pacific cod in excess of a limit specified in (6) of this subsection shall be immediately surrendered to the state;(8) once an offload begins, a vessel may not operate groundfish gear until all Pacific cod onboard the vessel is delivered; partial deliveries may occur as specified in 5 AAC 28.070, however, vessels may not operate groundfish gear in between partial deliveries including partial deliveries to shorebased processors, floating processors, tenders, transporters, or motherships;(9) during the state-waters season, an owner or operator of a validly registered vessel must report, as specified by the department (A) the amount of gear operated by the vessel during the designated period;(B) the number of round pounds of Pacific cod retained during the designated period; and(C) any other information that the commissioner determines is necessary for the management and conservation of the fishery.(e) The commissioner may open and close, by emergency order, fishing seasons at times other than those specified in this section if the commissioner determines it is necessary to (1) adapt to unanticipated openings and closures of federal seasons;(2) provide for maximum fishing opportunity;(3) maintain sustained yield management; or(4) provide for orderly fisheries.(f) The Aleutian Islands Subdistrict is an exclusive registration area for Pacific cod during a state-waters season.(g) The commissioner may, by emergency order, impose by catch limitations and retention requirements based on conservation of the resource, to avoid waste of a bycatch species, to prevent overharvest of bycatch species, or to facilitate consistency of state and federal regulations for a species.(h) The following closures apply during a state-waters season: (1) Seguam foraging area for Steller sea lions as specified in 50 C.F.R. 679.22(a)(8)(i), updated March 9, 2012, as defined in 68 Federal Register 204, January 2, 2003;(2) groundfish closures within three nautical miles of Steller sea lion sites of the Aleutian Islands District west of 170° W. long. as specified in 50 C.F.R. 679.22(a)(8)(iii), updated March 9, 2012, found in Table 12 of 50 C.F.R. 679, as defined in 75 Federal Register 81921 - 81941, December 29, 2010;(3) all Steller sea lion protection measures for Pacific cod found in Table 5 of 50 C.F.R. 679, as defined in 79 Federal Register 70286 - 70338, November 25, 2014, except that the 10 nautical mile closure around the Steller sea lion site at Kanaga Island/Ship Rock at 51 ° 46.70' N. lat., 177° 20.72' W. long. shall be closed to the taking of Pacific cod only within three nautical miles;(4) all habitat closures specified in 5 AAC 3 9 .167 that are located in the Aleutian Islands District west of 170° W. long.(i) If a state-waters season and federal season for Pacific cod are open concurrently for the same gear type, (1) a vessel may not participate in a state-waters season and any other Pacific cod season at the same time;(2) before entering or exiting a state-waters fishery, a vessel operator must (A) check in and check out by contacting a local representative of the department in person, or by telephone, facsimile transmission, electronic mail, or radio; and(B) deliver all unprocessed Pacific cod on board the vessel;(3) the commissioner may close, by emergency order, the state-waters season and immediately reopen a state-Waters season during which there are modified landing requirements and check-in and check-out requirements based on effort, harvest rate, or remaining quota.(j) The board intends that a vessel operator generally harvest less than the vessel's allowable harvest limit, possess less than the vessel's allowable possession limit, and limit the vessel's fishing activities if there is a possibility of exceeding those limits. A vessel operator of a vessel harvesting more than an allowable harvest limit or that is in possession of more than the allowable possession limit is considered to have engaged in improper operation of gear. Nothing in this section is intended to preclude or discourage additional enforcement action under AS 16.05.722, AS 16.05.723, or any other applicable law for any violation of this section.(k) If at any time after March 15, the commissioner determines that the guideline harvest level for Pacific cod will not be achieved by December 31, the commissioner may close the fishing season by emergency order and immediately reopen a state-waters season during which the following may be implemented to increase the harvest rate in an attempt to reach the guideline harvest level: (1) removal of the 150,000 round pound daily harvest limit;(2) designation as a nonexclusive registration area;(3) removal of the 25 percent harvest limit for pot gear vessels greater than 60 feet in overall length;(4) allowance for nonpelagic trawl gear up to 100 feet in overall length;(5) allowance for pot gear vessels up to 125 feet in overall length;(6) if the season is closed and immediately reopened under this subsection, a vessel participating in the state-waters season when it was closed will not be required to comply with landing requirements until the season is closed again.(l) At the closure of the state-waters season, all fishing gear must be removed from the water, except that pot gear may be stored in the water with all bait and bait containers removed and doors secured fully open. Pot gear stored in the water after closure of the state-waters season may not be retrieved until all Pacific cod onboard the vessel is delivered.(m) For the purposes of this section, (1) "day" means the 24-hour period of time between 12:00 midnight and 11:59 p.m. of the same calendar day;(2) "harvest" means the total weight of fish or number of shellfish removed from the water by commercial fishing operations.Eff. 2/27/2006, Register 177; am 5/10/2006, Register 178; am 12/24/2006, Register 180; am 4/24/2009, Register 190; am 5/16/2010, Register 194; am 5/1/2011, Register 198; am 6/17/2011, Register 198; am 6/25/2011, Register 198; am 10/16/2011, Register 200; am 4/20/2012, Register 202; am 2/23/2014, Register 209, April 2014; am 2/28/2016, Register 217, April 2016; am 2/21/2019, Register 229, April 2019; am 2/28/2020, Register 233, April 2020; am 3/26/2023, Register 245, April 2023; am 7/28/2023, Register 247, October 2023Authority:AS 16.05.060
AS 16.05.251