Alaska Administrative Code
Title 5 - Fish and Game
Part 1 - Commercial and Subsistence Fishing and Private Nonprofit Salmon Hatcheries
Chapter 39 - General Provisions
Article 6 - Shellfish Fishery
5 AAC 39.670 - Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) Crab Fisheries Management Plan
Universal Citation: 5 AK Admin Code 39.670
Current through February 24, 2025
(a) This management plan applies to the management of the nine crab fisheries rationalized by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), including the Community Development Quota and the Adak community allocation, with management authority deferred to the Department of Fish and Game as referenced in the Fishery Management Plan for Bering Sea/ Aleutian Islands King and Tanner Crabs.
(b) The following fisheries are covered under the management plan in this section:
(1)
Bristol Bay red king crab (BBR);
(2) Aleutian Islands red king crab (west of
179º W. long.) (WAI);
(3)
Aleutian Islands golden king crab (east of 174º W. long.) (EAG);
(4) Aleutian Islands golden king crab (west
of 174º W. long.) (WAG);
(5)
Saint Matthew Island Section blue king crab (SMB);
(6) Pribilof District red and blue king crab
(PIK);
(7) Bering Sea snow crab
(BSS);
(8) Bering Sea Tanner crab
(east of 166º W. long.) (EBT);
(9) Bering Sea Tanner crab (west of 166º
W. long.) (WBT).
(c) The following provisions apply to the fisheries specified in this section:
(1) a vessel participating in an Individual
Fishing Quota (IFQ), Community Development Quota (CDQ), or the Adak community
allocation crab fishery must have on board the vessel an activated vessel
monitoring system (VMS) approved by NMFS;
(2) a vessel operator who is registered for
one of the fisheries listed in (b) of this section may
(A) authorize other vessel operators who are
registered for the same fishery to operate crab pot gear registered to that
vessel; before a vessel operator may operate crab pot gear registered to
another vessel, the registered operator of the pot gear must file a cooperative
gear authorization form with the department authorizing other vessels to
operate the crab pot gear;
(B)
transfer gear operation rights and responsibilities to only one other vessel
operator who is registered for that fishery and only under the following
conditions:
(i) both the operator of the
vessel relinquishing gear operation rights and responsibilities (relinquisher)
and the vessel operator receiving those rights and responsibilities (recipient)
must sign a gear operation transfer form or notify the department by electronic
mail giving the effective date and time of the transfer and the number of pots
being transferred;
(ii) the gear
operation transfer form must also be signed by a department representative
before the pot gear transfer is valid and a copy of the gear operation transfer
form bearing the original signatures of both the relinquisher and recipient
vessel operator must be received by the department within 30 days of the
effective date of the department signature; for the purposes of this
subparagraph, the form must be submitted in person at the department's Dutch
Harbor office, or by mail, or by facsimile; or both the relinquisher and the
recipient shall notify the department by electronic mail, from the electronic
mail address provided on the registration form, of the effective date and time
of the transfer, and receive a reply electronic mail from the department
validating the transfer within seven days of the effective date:
(iii) the transfer of gear operation rights
and responsibilities must occur and be validated within 14 days of the
relinquishing vessel being active in the registration area where the pot gear
is located;
(iv) the pot gear
transfer must include all of the pot gear registered to the relinquishing
vessel and that vessel's pot gear may not be split among more than one
recipient vessel;
(v) except as
specified in (c)(2)(C) of this section, gear operation rights and
responsibilities revert to the relinquisher at the regulatory closure of the
fishery in which the gear is registered to operate;
(C) gear operation rights and
responsibilities may be restored to the relinquishing vessel if the
relinquisher and recipient notify the department as specified in (c)(2)(B) of
this section;
(3) each
crab pot deployed must bear the ADF&G number of the vessel that initially
registers the crab pot, and if deployed in a fishery with a crab pot limit,
each pot must bear a buoy tag registered to the vessel registering that pot; in
addition,
(A) an active vessel may
collectively operate and transport crab pot gear of another registered and
active vessel;
(B) when a vessel
transports and deploys crab pot gear to the fishing grounds for another vessel,
the vessel registered with the crab pot gear must be active in the registration
area where the crab pot gear is deployed within seven days of the initial
deployment;
(C) repealed
8/28/2005;
(D) a vessel's crab pot
gear may not be deployed unless the vessel is actively participating in
harvesting the species in the applicable area, except for when a vessel h as
checked out of a fishery under
5
AAC 39.670(c)(3)(G) and has notified
the department of its intent to deploy gear consistent with
5
AAC 39.670(c)(3)(E);
(E) for the purposes of this paragraph, a
vessel is considered active in an area by becoming validly registered with the
department and by VMS verification of the vessel in the registration
area;
(F) a vessel that has
completed fishing operations as specified in
5
AAC 39.675(b) (1) and (2) is not
considered active in a registration area;
(G) a vessel operator who is registered for
one of the fisheries listed in (b) of this section must check out with the
department in Dutch Harbor or Kodiak by telephone, facsimile transmission, or
electronic mail within 72 hours of operating the vessel's last pot in the
registration area.
(4)
no provision in this section allows an individual vessel operator to use a
greater quantity of crab pot gear than otherwise authorized in the applicable
provisions of 5 AAC 34 or 5 AAC 35;
(5) a vessel operator may harvest EBT and
BBR, or WBT and BSS, or EBT and BSS, concunently; as follows:
(A) a vessel operator participating in the
BBR fishery may retain EBT as incidental harvest as specified in
5
AAC 35.506(i) (2);
(B) a vessel operator participating in the
BSS fishery may retain WBT as incidental harvest as specified in
5
AAC 35.506(i) (1);
(C) a vessel operator participating in the
WBT fishery may retain BSS as incidental harvest as specified in
5
AAC 35.506(j);
(D) a vessel operator participating in the
BSS fishery may retain EBT as incidental harvest as specified in
5
AAC 35.506(i)(1);
(6) a vessel operator may have a
species of king or Tanner crab from an IFQ fishery and king crab from an Adak
community allocation fishery or a species of king or Tanner crab from a CDQ
fishery on board the vessel at the same time; a vessel operator may not have a
species of king or Tanner crab from an IFQ fishery and a species of king or
Tanner crab from a non-CDQ or non-IFQ fishery on board the vessel at the same
time;
(7) an operator of a vessel
participating in an IFQ, CDQ, or Adak community allocation crab fishery in the
Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands area must notify the United States Coast Guard at
least 24 hours before departing port when carrying crab pot gear;
(8) in addition to the registration
requirements specified in 5 AAC 34 and 5 AAC 35, a vessel owner, or owner's
agent, shall provide satisfactory proof of a current valid United States Coast
Guard Commercial Fisheries Vessel Safety Decal before a registration
certificate is issued;
(9) the
operator of a vessel designated at the time of registration to operate the crab
pot gear of another vessel shall be considered the agent of the vessel
registered to operate the crab pot gear.
The contact phone number for the United States Coast Guard for Kodiak, Alaska is (907) 654-5588; Unalaska/Dutch Harbor, Alaska is (907) 581-6738; Anchorage, Alaska is (907) 229-8203; and Kenai, Alaska is (907) 398-6220.
The gear operation transfer form specified in 5 AAC 39.670(c) (2) may be sent to the department office in Dutch Harbor at Department of Fish and Game, P.O. Box 920587, Dutch Harbor, AK 99692-0587; Fax (907) 581-1579;email: dig.dutchharbor@alaska.gov.
Authority:AS 16.05.251
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