Section 5 AAC 75.003 - Emergency order authorityThe commissioner may, by emergency order, change bag and possession limits and annual limits and 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 provisions for increasing or decreasing bag and possession limits or changing methods and means established in regulatory management plans established by the Board of Fisheries. The commissioner will use 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 annual 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 annual 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;(4) the Board of Fisheries recognizes that harvest regulations may need to be modified to attain guideline harvest levels or allocations, or to address conservation concerns, within the salt water guided fisheries in various areas of the state; if the commissioner determines that the regulations must be modified to attain the salt water guided fishery guideline harvest level or allocation, or to address conservation concerns, the commissioner may, by emergency order, open, or close and immediately reopen, a sport fishing season during which (A) a sport fishing guide and sport fishing guide crew member working on a charter vessel in salt waters may not retain fish or certain species of fish while clients are on board the vessel; and(B) the maximum number of fishing lines that may be fished from a vessel engaged in guided sport fishing in salt waters is equal to the number of paying clients on board the vessel;(5) in all waters, if waters become contaminated, or in stocked waters during times of low hatchery output, the commissioner may, by emergency order, modify methods and means, reduce bag limits, or institute a catch-and-release fishing only fishery.Eff. 7/26/90, Register 115; am 3/13/2004, Register 169; am 5/26/2006, Register 178; am 7/1/2007, Register 182; am 6/10/2010, Register 194; am 4/9/2020, Register 234, April 2020; am 6/25/2023, Register 246, July 2023Authority:AS 16.05.060
AS 16.05.251