(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;
(A) Repealed
6/5/2020;
(B) Repealed
6/5/2020;
(C) Repealed 6/5/2020;
(D) Repealed 6/5/2020;
(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.
