Alaska Administrative Code
Title 5 - Fish and Game
Part 1 - Commercial and Subsistence Fishing and Private Nonprofit Salmon Hatcheries
Chapter 02 - Subsistence Shellfish Fishery
Article 1 - Statewide Provisions
5 AAC 02.010 - Methods, means, and general restrictions

Universal Citation: 5 AK Admin Code 02.010

Current through August 30, 2024

(a) Unless otherwise provided in this title, the following are legal types of gear for subsistence fishing:

(1) gear specified in 5 AAC 39.105;

(2) jigging gear which consists of a line or lines with lures or baited hooks which are operated during periods of ice cover from holes cut in the ice and which are drawn through the water by hand;

(3) a spear which is a shaft with a sharp point or fork-like implement attached to one end, used to thrust through the water to impale or retrieve fish and which is operated by hand;

(4) a lead which is a length of net employed for guiding fish into a seine or a length of net or fencing employed for guiding fish into a fish wheel, fyke net, or dip net.

(b) Unless otherwise specified in this chapter, it is unlawful to buy or sell subsistence-taken shellfish, their parts, or their eggs, except that it is lawful to buy or sell a handicraft made out of the skin, shell, or nonedible by-products of shellfish taken for personal or family consumption.

(c) The use of explosives and chemicals is prohibited, except that chemical baits or lures may be used to attract shellfish.

(d) Subsistence fishing by the use of a line attached to a rod or pole is prohibited except when fishing through the ice in the Bering Sea Area.

(e) Marking requirements for subsistence shellfish gear are as follows:

(1) a person who is subsistence fishing shall plainly and legibly inscribe that person's first initial, last name, and address on a keg or buoy attached to unattended subsistence fishing gear, except that if a person is fishing through ice, a stake inscribed with the first initial, last name, and address inserted in the ice near the hole may be substituted for the keg or buoy; subsistence fishing gear may not display a permanent ADF&G vessel license number;

(2) kegs or buoys attached to subsistence crab pots or ring nets also must be inscribed with the name or the division of motor vehicles boat registration number, issued under 2 AAC 70, of the vessel used to operate the pots or ring nets.

(f) Pots used for subsistence fishing must comply with the escape mechanism requirements in 5 AAC 39.145.

(g) No person may mutilate or otherwise disfigure a crab in any manner which would prevent determination of the minimum size restrictions in 5 AAC 02 until the crab has been processed or prepared for consumption.

(h) Repealed 5/15/93.

(i) Subsistence shellfish pot limits are as follows:

(1) except in the Kotzebue Sound Section and when fishing through the ice in the Norton Sound Section, no more than five pots per person and 10 pots per vessel may be used to take crab;

(2) Repealed 5/9/2015.

(j) Effective July 1, 1986, shellfish may be taken only by residents.

(k) Repealed 5/15/93.

In Register 214, July 2015, a portion of a substance of 5 AAC 02.010(a)(1) was moved to 5 AAC 02.109 and the substance of 5 AAC 02.010(i)(2) was moved to 5 AAC 02.109 and 5 AAC 02.110.

At its February 23 - 27, 1993 meeting, the Board of Fisheries readopted 5 AAC 02.010(a) - (d), (g), and (j) in their entirety without change, under ch. 1, SSSLA 1992 (the 1992 subsistence law), which repealed and reenacted AS 16.05.258.

Authority:AS 16.05.251

AS 16.05.258

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