Section 5 AAC 27.535 - Harvest strategies for Kodiak Area(b) The department shall establish guideline harvest levels for the herring food and bait fisheries for the Kodiak Area, which may not exceed 10 percent of the guideline harvest level of that section in the previous sac roe season. The Shiiyak Island, Offshore West Afotliiak, Outer Uganik, Offshore Uvak, Hallo Bay, Outer Kukak, and Missak Sections may not open for the food and bait fishery.(c) The department shall manage the districts of the food and bait herring fishery, so that the harvest does not exceed the combined sum of the guideline harvest levels of the individual sections of a district. The department may manage the food and bait fishery, including the Shelikof Strait fishery, by section of a district, if the harvest location, age class composition of the harvest, or biomass estimates indicate a harvest has occurred on a single herring spawning stock.(e) The department shall manage the sac roe herring fishery as follows; the commissioner shall issue emergency orders as necessary:(1) based on the department's assessment of (A) biomass, recent spawning areas, and status of a herring stock in a bay or complex of bays, adjacent sections may be combined and managed as a single section;(B) effort levels, harvest rates, and the department's ability to monitor the fishery, the length of the fishing periods for either or both gear types may be increased or reduced; and(C) remaining guideline harvest levels, notwithstanding any other provision of this section, from May 1 through June 30, the commissioner may, by emergency order, open any area with a remaining herring guideline harvest level to any gear group if the department determines that the fishery is not likely to result in overharvest of the resource;(2) except as provided in (4) of this subsection, the department shall establish guideline harvest levels each year by section based on information such as historical data, current and past fishery performance, sampling of commercial catches, and aerial surveys; (3) an individual section shall be closed to fishing once that section's guideline harvest level has been achieved; the guideline harvest level for an individual section may be adjusted downward inseason depending on observed stock abundance; the department may make adjustments in the management of a section based on inseason changes in fish behavior or harvest patterns; these changes may result in an adjacent section closure;(4) a section that does not have an extensive history of sac roe and food and bait production may be designated as exploratory with no specified guideline harvest level; permit holders for either gear type may fish in an exploratory section; a section listed as exploratory under this paragraph may be opened or closed, based on inseason information such as observed stock abundance, harvest levels, and changes in fish behavior or harvest patterns, including such changes in adjacent sections;(5) a section that has been closed because its guideline harvest level has been achieved may be reopened, if the department determines that additional herring arriving on the grounds have increased the available biomass to the point that the initial exploitation rate has dropped below 10 percent for that stock; any reopening will require information indicating that juvenile herring, post spawners, or other forage fish are not present and that the department has the ability to monitor and regulate the reopening on the grounds; the department shall give at least 24 hours' advance notice before a section is reopened under this paragraph;(6) the Kodiak herring sac roe fishery is intended to occur in an orderly fashion, with minimal waste of resource and within conservation limits as determined by the department, while striving for the highest quality product;(7) in this subsection, "section" means a section as described in 5 AAC 27.505.In effect before 1982; am 4/14/82, Register 82; am 5/11/85, Register 94; am 5/31/85, Register 94; am 6/2/88, Register 106; am 4/14/93, Register 126; am 3/30/96, Register 137; am 5/29/99, Register 150; am 4/16/2000, Register 154; am 3/8/2002, Register 161; am 5/4/2002, Register 162; am 4/9/2005, Register 174; am 4/25/2008, Register 186; am 4/24/2009, Register 190; am 6/5/2020, Register 234, July 2020Authority:AS 16.05.060
AS 16.05.251