Section 5 AAC 06.361 - Nushagak-Mulchatna King Salmon Management Plan(a) The purpose of this management plan is to ensure biological spawning escapement requirements of king salmon into the Nushagak-Mulchatna river systems. It is the intent of the Alaska Board of Fisheries (board) that Nushagak-Mulchatna king salmon be harvested in the fisheries that have historically harvested them. This management plan provides guidelines to the department to preclude allocation conflicts between the various users of this resource. The department shall manage Nushagak-Mulchatna king salmon stocks in a conservative manner consistent with sustained yield principles and the subsistence priority. Additionally, the department shall manage the Nushagak fisheries for the following management measures:(1) to provide consistent sport fishing opportunity within and among seasons, including a level of inriver abundance as a given year's run timing allows, and a predictably bpen season;(2) to provide a directed commercial king salmon fishery when surplus is available;(3) to minimize disruptions to the commercial sockeye salmon fishery;(4) to provide reasonable opportunity for subsistence harvest of king salmon;(5) to ensure the subsistence fishery is the last fishery restricted or closed;(6) to achieve escapement goals for all species in the district;(7) to maintain a representation of age classes in the escapement similar to the run.(b) The department shall manage the commercial and sport fisheries in the Nushagak District as follows: (1) to achieve an inriver goal of 95,000 king salmon present in the Nushagak River upstream from the department sonar counter; the inriver goal provides for (A) a biological escapement goal of 55,000 - 120,000 fish;(B) reasonable opportunity for subsistence harvest of king salmon; and(C) a king salmon sport fishery guideline harvest level of 5,000 fish, 20 inches or greater in length;(2) in order to maintain a natural representation of age classes in the escapement, the department shall attempt to schedule commercial openings to provide pulses of fish into the river that have not been subject to harvest by commercial gear;(3) the department may close the commercial drift or set gillnet fishery if the harvest in the directed commercial king salmon fishery for either gear group is more than two sockeye salmon for every one king salmon;(4) consistent with 5 AAC 06.367 (Nushagak District Commercial Set and Drift Gillnet Sockeye Salmon Fisheries Management and Allocation Plan), to conserve king salmon the department shall manage for sockeye escapements in the Nushagak District to fall within (A) the lower half of each river's sockeye salmon escapement goal range when the Wood River sockeye salmon run is 5,000,000 fish or less and the Nushagak sockeye salmon run is 2,500,000 fish or less; or(B) the upper half of each river's sockeye salmon escapement goal range when the Wood River sockeye salmon run is greater than 5,000,000 fish or the Nushagak sockeye salmon run is greater than 2,500,000 fish based on the preseason forecast and inseason assessment of run size; (5) beginning June 25, the department shall consider when evaluating the total run of sockeye salmon to the Nushagak District all possible data sources including the preseason forecast, Port Moller test fishery indices, including stock and age composition, total catch and effort to date, age composition of catch and effort data, and district test fishing;(6) from June 1 through June 30, the department shall, in an attempt to conserve king salmon and to the extent practicable, conduct a gillnet test fishery to assess the abundance of sockeye and king salmon before opening by emergency order a fishing period directed at sockeye salmon.(c) If the total inriver king salmon return in the Nushagak River is projected to exceed 95,000 fish, the guideline harvest level described in (b)(1)(C) of this section does not apply and the department shall consider opening a directed commercial king salmon fishery.(d) If the spawning escapement of king salmon in the Nushagak River is projected to be more than 55,000 fish and the projected inriver return is less than 95,000 fish, the commissioner (1) shall close, by emergency order, the directed king salmon commercial fishery in the Nushagak District; during a closure under this paragraph, the use of a commercial gillnet with webbing larger than five and one-half inches in another commercial salmon fishery is prohibited;(e) If the spawning escapement of king salmon in the Nushagak River is projected to be less than 55,000 fish, the commissioner (1) shall close, by emergency order, the sockeye salmon commercial fishery in the Nushagak District until the projected sockeye salmon escapement into the Wood River exceeds 100,000 fish;(2) shall restrict to catch-and-release, by emergency order, the sport fishery directed for king salmon in the Nushagak River and prohibit the use of bait for fishing for all species offish until the end of the king salmon season specified in 5 AAC 67.020 and 5 AAC 67.022(g); and(3) may establish, by emergency order, fishing periods during which the time or area is reduced for the inriver king salmon subsistence fishery in the Nushagak River.(f) Notwithstanding 5 AAC 06.200, in a directed king salmon commercial fishery, the southern boundary of the Nushagak District is a line from an ADF&G regulatory marker located at Etolin Point at 58º 39.37' N. lat., 158º 19.31' W. long., to 58º 33.92' N. lat., 158º 24.94' W. long. to Protection Point at 58º 29.27' N. lat., 158º 41.78' W. long.(g) During a directed king salmon commercial fishery in the Nushagak District, drift gillnet and set gillnet fishing periods will be of equal length, but do not have to be open concurrently.Eff. 6/19/92, Register 122; am 4/9/95, Register 134; am 5/14/98, Register 146; am 6/3/2001, Register 158; am 7/8/2001, Register 159; am 4/9/2004, Register 170; am 3/30/2007, Register 181; am 4/4/2013, Register 206; am 8/27/2016, Register 219, October 2016 ; am 5/31/2019, Register 230, May 2019; am 6/25/2023, Register 246, July 2023Authority:AS 16.05.060
AS 16.05.251