Section 5 AAC 35.509 - Eastern and Western Aleutian District Tanner crab harvest strategy(a) In the Eastern Aleutian District, a commercial Tanner crab fishery shall be managed by the department in accordance with 5 AAC 35.080 and may open only if (1) analysis of preseason survey data indicates that the estimated population at the time of the survey is at or above 50 percent of the long-term average of mature male abundance; and(2) the fishery is in a section of the Eastern Aleutian District that is sufficient to provide a guideline harvest level (GHL) of 10,000 pounds or more, or, for a fishery in the Unalaska Bay Section, sufficient to provide a guideline harvest level (GHL) of 15,000 pounds or more, as calculated under (d) of this section.(b) The threshold levels of mature male abundance, in numbers of crab, for the Akutan Bay, Unalaska/Kalckta Bay and Makushin/Skan Bay Sections of the Eastern Aleutian District are calculated as one - half of the average of the annual survey estimated abundance of mature male Tanner crab in each section for the period 1990-2019:(c) In the Eastern Aleutian District, the (1) vessel operator must register with the department before fishing in any of the sections and may not be simultaneously registered to fish in more than one section at a time;(2) commissioner may close, by emergency order, any section based on fishery performance;(3) commissioner may announce, by emergency order, area closures in Unalaska Bay to reduce the impact of commercial fisheries on subsistence fisheries.(d) If the commercial Tanner crab fishery in the Eastern Aleutian District is opened under (a) of this section, the GHL will be calculated as follows: (1) if the current mature male abundance estimate is between 50 and 100 percent of the long-term average, the guideline harvest level will be no more than five percent of the mature male abundance and no more than 10 percent of the legal size male abundance, whichever is less:(2) if the current mature male abundance estimate is above 100 percent of the long-term average, the guideline harvest level will be no more than 10 percent of the molting mature male abundance and no more than 15 percent of the legal size male abundance, whichever is less.(e) In implementing the harvest strategy under this section, the board understands that the department will consider the reliability of the estimates of abundance of Tanner crab, the manageability of the fishery, and other factors deemed necessary to be consistent with sustained yield principles and to use the best scientific information available.(f) Nothing in this section prohibits the department from opening a commercial fishery for Tanner crab in the General Section of the Eastern Aleutian District under the conditions of a permit issued by the commissioner. The permit required in this section may (1) specify season dates to consider the timing of mating and molting;(2) specify areas of fishing operations by district or geographic location to distribute effort;(3) specify the amount and configuration of pots as needed to minimize bycatch and evaluate fishery performance;(4) specify harvest limits to prevent localized depletion;(5) require a department representative to be onboard during fishing operations to collect biological or fishery dependent information needed for stock assessment;(6) require completion of logbooks provided by the department that include the date, the specific location of harvest by latitude and longitude, the number of pots fished, the average depth of each pot fished, the time that gear is deployed and removed from the water of each set, and the number of crab retained and discarded for the target and each bycatch species; a person may not make a false entry in a logbook required under this section(h) For the purposes of this section, (1) "average of the annual survey estimated abundance of mature male Tanner crab" means the average of the semi-annual trawl survey estimated abundance of mature male Tanner crab for the period 1990-2019;(2) "mature male abundance" means the survey estimated abundance of all male Tanner crab greater than 114 millimeters in carapace width.(i) In the Western Aleutian District, male Tanner crab five and one-half inches carapace width or greater may be taken only under the conditions of a permit issued by the commissioner.(j) The permit required in (i) of this section, may (1) specify season dates to consider the timing of mating and molting;(2) specify areas of fishing operations by district or geographic location to distribute effort;(3) specify the amount and configuration of pots as needed to minimize by catch and evaluate fishery performance;(4) specify harvest limits to prevent localized depletion;(5) require a department representative to be onboard during fishing operations to collect biological or fishery dependent information needed for stock assessment;(6) require completion of logbooks provided by the department that include the date, the specific location of harvest by latitude and longitude, the number of pots fished, the average depth of each pot fished, the time gear is deployed and removed from the water of each set, and the number of crab retained and discarded for the target and each bycatch species; a person may not make a false entry in the logbook required in this section.Eff. 9/12/2008, Register 187 6/28/2019, Register 230, May 2019; am 9/25/2022, Register 243, October 2022Authority:AS 16.05.060
AS 16.05.251