Section 5.28.647. Aleutian Islands Subdistrict Pacific Cod Management Plan.

	(a)  This management plan governs the harvest of Pacific cod in the Aleutian Islands Subdistrict, including the Adak Section. For the purposes of this section, the  
		(1) Aleutian Islands Subdistrict is comprised of the state waters in the Aleutian Islands District west of 170_ W. long.; and  
		(2) Adak Section is comprised of the state waters of the Aleutian Islands Subdistrict between 175_ W. long. and 178_ W. long.  
	(b)  Each year, the commissioner shall open and close, by emergency order, a parallel season in the Aleutian Islands Subdistrict, except the Adak Section, to coincide with the initial federal season in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Area. The commissioner shall open and close, by emergency order, the parallel season during which the use of the same gear allowed in the federal Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Area Pacific cod season is permitted, unless that gear is prohibited under 5 AAC 28.050.  
	(c)  The commissioner shall open and close, by emergency order, a state-waters season in the Aleutian Islands Subdistrict as follows:  
		(1) the Adak Section shall open January 1;  
		(2) all waters of the Aleutian Islands Subdistrict shall open as follows:  
			(A) four days after the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands parallel "A" season for the catcher-vessel trawl fishery is closed or four days after the federal Aleutian Islands Subarea non-CDQ season is closed, whichever is earlier; or  
			(B) if the state-waters season has not opened under (A) of this paragraph by March 14, the commissioner will close, by emergency order, the parallel "A" season for the catcher-vessel trawl fishery at 12:00 noon March 14 and open, by emergency order, the state-waters season at 12:00 noon March 15;  
		(3) the commissioner shall close, by emergency order, the state-waters season when the guideline harvest level is taken or on December 31, whichever occurs first; except as otherwise specified in this chapter, all parallel Pacific cod seasons are closed during the state-waters season.  
	(d)  During a state-waters season,  
		(1) the guideline harvest level for Pacific cod in the Aleutian Islands Subdistrict is 27 percent of the estimated total allowable harvest of Pacific cod for the federal Aleutian Islands Subarea; if the guideline harvest level established under this paragraph is achieved in a calendar year, the guideline harvest level will be increased to 31 percent of the estimated total allowable harvest of Pacific cod for the federal Aleutian Islands Subarea beginning the next calendar year; if the guideline harvest level is achieved in a calendar year thereafter, the guideline harvest level will be increased to 35 percent of the estimated total allowable harvest of Pacific cod for the federal Aleutian Islands Subarea beginning the next calendar next year; if the guideline harvest level is achieved in a calendar year thereafter, the guideline harvest level will be increased to a maximum of 39 percent of the estimated total allowable harvest of Pacific cod for the federal Aleutian Islands Subarea beginning the next calendar year; a guideline harvest level established under this paragraph may not exceed 15 million pounds;  
		(2) Pacific cod may be taken only with groundfish pots, mechanical jigging machines, longline, nonpelagic trawl, and hand troll gear; groundfish pots may be longlined; each end of the groundfish pot longline must have a buoy attached and each buoy must be marked with the permanent ADF&G vessel plate number of the vessel operating the groundfish longlined pot gear and the letters "GFL" to designate the gear as longlined groundfish pot gear; the numbers and letters must be marked on the top one-half of the buoy in numbers and letters that are at least four inches high, one-half inch wide, and in a color that contrasts with the color of the buoy; the buoy markings must be visible on the buoy above the water surface when the buoy is attached to the longlined pot gear; for the purposes of this paragraph, "longlined" means more than one groundfish pot is attached to a stationary, buoyed, and anchored line;  
		(3) a vessel used to harvest Pacific cod when  
			(A) only the Adak Section is open under (c)(1) of this section, with  
				(i) longline gear, may not be more than 58 feet in overall length;  
				(ii) nonpelagic trawl gear, mechanical jigging machines, or pot gear, may not be more than 60 feet in overall length;  
			(B) all waters of the Aleutian Islands Subdistrict are open under (c)(2) of this section, with  
				(i) mechanical jigging machines and longline gear, may not be more than 58 feet in overall length;  
				(ii) nonpelagic trawl gear, may not be more than 100 feet in overall length;  
				(iii) pot gear, may not be more than 125 feet in overall length;  
		(4) a vessel operator may be concurrently registered to harvest Pacific cod with mechanical jigging machines and longline gear, but may not be concurrently registered to harvest Pacific cod with any other gear types;  
		(5) a vessel's gear registration may be changed during a state-waters season to a different gear registration if the owner, or owner's agent, submits a written request for a change in registration by mail, facsimile, or in person, to the department office in Dutch Harbor, or other locations specified by the department for validation, and that registration has been validated by the department; a vessel may not fish outside of the designated registration area; a vessel may not change registration while unprocessed fish are on board the vessel;  
		(6) a vessel may harvest up to 150,000 pounds of Pacific cod per day and may not have more than 150,000 pounds of unprocessed Pacific cod on board the vessel at any time; a vessel may not have on board the vessel more processed fish than the round weight equivalent of the fish reported on ADF&G fish tickets; a validly registered vessel must report daily to the department the pounds of Pacific cod taken and on board the vessel;  
		(7) all Pacific cod taken must be retained; any overage of a limit specified in (6) of this subsection must be immediately reported to the department by the vessel operator; all proceeds from the sale of Pacific cod in excess of a limit specified in (6) of this subsection shall be immediately surrendered to the state.  
	(e)  The commissioner may open and close, by emergency order, fishing seasons at times other than those specified in this section if the commissioner determines it is necessary to  
		(1) adapt to unanticipated openings and closures of federal seasons;  
		(2) provide for maximum fishing opportunity;  
		(3) maintain sustained yield management; or  
		(4) provide for orderly fisheries.  
	(f)  The Aleutian Islands Subdistrict is a nonexclusive registration area for Pacific cod during a state-waters season.  
	(g)  The commissioner may, by emergency order, impose bycatch limitations and retention requirements based on conservation of the resource, to avoid waste of a bycatch species, to prevent overharvest of bycatch species, or to facilitate consistency of state and federal regulations for a species.  
	(h)  The following closures apply during a state-waters season:  
		(1) Seguam foraging area for Steller sea lions as specified in 50 C.F.R. 679.22(a)(8)(i), updated March 9, 2012, as defined in 68 Federal Register 204, January 2, 2003;  
		(2) groundfish closures within three nautical miles of Steller sea lion sites of the Aleutian Islands District west of 170_ W. long. as specified in 50 C.F.R. 679.22(a)(8)(iii), updated March 9, 2012, found in Table 12 of 50 C.F.R. 679, as defined in 75 Federal Register 81921 - 81941, December 29, 2010;  
		(3) all Steller sea lion protection measures for Pacific cod found in Table 5 of 50 C.F.R. 679, as defined in 79 Federal Register 70286 - 70338, November 25, 2014, except that the 10 nautical mile closure around the Steller sea lion site at Kanaga Island/Ship Rock at 51_ 46.70' N. lat., 177_ 20.72' W. long. shall be closed to the taking of Pacific cod only within three nautical miles;  
		(4) all habitat closures specified in 5 AAC 39.167 that are located in the Aleutian Islands District west of 170_ W. long.  
	(i)  If a state-waters season and federal season for Pacific cod are open concurrently for the same gear type,  
		(1) a vessel may not participate in a state-waters season and any other Pacific cod season at the same time;  
		(2) before entering or exiting a state-waters fishery, a vessel operator must  
			(A) check in and check out by contacting a local representative of the department in person, or by telephone, facsimile transmission, electronic mail, or radio; and  
			(B) deliver all unprocessed Pacific cod on board the vessel;  
		(3) the commissioner may close, by emergency order, the state-waters season and immediately reopen a state-waters season during which there are modified landing requirements and check-in and check-out requirements based on effort, harvest rate, or remaining quota.  
	(j)  The board intends that a vessel operator generally harvest less than the vessel's allowable harvest limit, possess less than the vessel's allowable possession limit, and limit the vessel's fishing activities if there is a possibility of exceeding those limits. A vessel operator of a vessel harvesting more than an allowable harvest limit or that is in possession of more than the allowable possession limit is considered to have engaged in improper operation of gear. Nothing in this section is intended to preclude or discourage additional enforcement action under AS 16.05.722, AS 16.05.723, or any other applicable law for any violation of this section.  

Authorities

16.05.060;16.05.251;44.62.060

Notes

Reference

5 AAC 28.081
5 AAC 28.606

Authority

AS 16.05.060 AS 16.05.251 Editor's note: The department office in Dutch Harbor may be contacted at Department of Fish and Game, P.O. Box 920587, Dutch Harbor, Alaska, 99692-0587; Phone [phone]; Fax: [phone] AAC 28.647 took effect on February 27, 2006 as an emergency regulation, and was first published in Register 177 (April 2006). In reviewing the "permanent" regulation in accordance with AS 44.62.060 and 44.62.125(b), the regulations attorney made technical changes to 5 AAC 28.647. The technical changes appeared in the "permanent" regulation as published in Register 178 (July 2006). The history note for 5 AAC 28.647 does not reflect the changes made by the regulations attorney.

History

Eff. 2/27/2006, Register 177; am 5/10/2006, Register 178; am 12/24/2006, Register 180; am 4/24/2009, Register 190; am 5/16/2010, Register 194; am 5/1/2011, Register 198; am 6/17/2011, Register 198; am 6/25/2011, Register 198; am 10/16/2011, Register 200; am 4/20/2012, Register 202; am 2/23/2014, Register 209; am 2/28/2016, Register 217

References

5.28.647