Section 5 AAC 31.223 - Lawful shrimp pot gear for Registration Area E(a) In Registration Area E, shrimp may be taken with pots only as specified in this section.(b) A shrimp pot may not have (1) more than one bottom;(2) a vertical height of more than 24 inches;(3) more than four tunnel eye openings, which individually do not exceed 15 inches in perimeter;(4) a bottom perimeter exceeding 124 inches.(c) The sides of a shrimp pot may only be (1) at a right angle to the plane of the bottom of the pot; or(2) slanted inward toward the center of the pot in a straight line from the bottom of the pot to the top of the pot.(d) A shrimp pot must be entirely covered with net webbing or rigid mesh. At least two adjacent sides or 50 percent of the vertical or near-vertical sides must be covered with net webbing or rigid mesh that allows the passage of a seven-eighths inch diameter by a 12 inch long wooden dowel, which upon insertion into the web, must drop completely through by its own weight, without force.(e) Shrimp pots may only be operated as follows: (1) the department will announce annually, before the opening of the commercial shrimp pot fishery season, the number of shrimp pots that may be operated from a vessel in the commercial shrimp pot fishery for that season, not to exceed 100 shrimp pots per vessel; in determining the annual pot limit, the department will consider the (A) total number of registered vessels;(B) estimated catch per unit of effort; and(C) magnitude of the guideline harvest level;(2) a vessel operator may have only shrimp pot gear registered to the vessel on board the vessel at any time;(3) shrimp pot gear may be deployed or retrieved only from 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. each day; the commissioner may close, by emergency order, the fishing season in a district or portion of a district and immediately reopen the season during which the time period allowed to deploy and retrieve shrimp pot gear may be increased or decreased to achieve the guideline harvest level;(4) shrimp pots may not be left in saltwater unattended for more than 14 days unless all bait containers have been removed and all doors secured fully open;(5) a vessel operator may not, at any time, have more than the legal limit of pot gear for the vessel, established under (2) of this subsection, in the aggregate on board the vessel, in the water in fishing condition, or in the water in non-fishing condition.Eff. 8/23/2009, Register 191Authority:AS 16.05.060
AS 16.05.251