Current through August 30, 2024
(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.
Authority:AS
16.05.060
AS
16.05.251
