Alaska Administrative Code › Title 5 - Fish and Game › Part 1 - Commercial and Subsistence Fishing and Private Nonprofit Salmon Hatcheries › Chapter 39 - General Provisions › Article 1 - General › 5 AAC 39.163 - Bottom Trawl Fisheries Management Plan

Current through May 31, 2024
(a) The Board of
				  Fisheries and the Department of Fish and Game are concerned about the bycatch
				  of fish, particularly crab and halibut, by non-pelagic trawl gear used to
				  harvest bottomfish. King and Tanner crab populations in most areas of the state
				  are either depressed or declining and are in need of protection from
				  human-induced mortality if they are to be allowed to rebuild to levels that
				  will allow future harvests. Halibut populations, while high, are fully utilized
				  in directed fisheries, and any additional harvest by nondirected fisheries may
				  increase exploitation rates above those used to maintain a sustained harvest
				  level. There is an indication that non-pelagic trawl gear may, at certain times
				  and in certain locations, inflict unacceptable mortalities on these nondirected
				  species. Since there is not, at this time, enough data available to quantify
				  the effects of non-pelagic trawl fisheries on nondirected species, the board
				  adopts the Bottom Trawl Fisheries Management Plan as a means of ensuring that
				  the data can be obtained.
(b) The
				  Board of Fisheries finds that in fisheries operating non-pelagic trawls,
				  onboard observers provide the only effective means of collecting information
				  essential to managing the resource. These fisheries generally harvest large
				  numbers of prohibited finfish and shellfish that cannot be legally retained.
				  Since a large portion of the prohibited species taken will be killed or
				  seriously damaged in the trawl, avoidance of prohibited species is essential to
				  conservation and wise use of the resource. Without onboard observers,
				  scientifically reliable data on prohibited species catch and related biological
				  information cannot be developed. In the absence of a reliable database, the
				  department cannot effect time and area restrictions or set non-pelagic trawl
				  catch quotas to provide protection for prohibited species.
(c) Based on findings that onboard observers
				  provide the only way to establish reasonable resource protection measures in
				  managing certain non-pelagic trawl fisheries, and consistent with
				  5 AAC 39.141 and
				  AS
				  16.05.251(a)(12), a vessel
				  may not operate non-pelagic trawl gear in waters specified in
				  5 AAC 39.164(a) without an onboard
				  observer present. Because no management alternatives exist, other than
				  disallowing operation of such vessels and gear, all costs associated with the
				  observer are determined to be an attendant fishing-related cost and must
				  therefore be borne by the vessel owner or operator on board whose vessel the
				  observer serves.
(d) When
				  sufficient reliable data has been collected to determine times and locations
				  where non-pelagic trawl gear can be operated without significant detrimental
				  impact on prohibited species, the limitations in this section and
				  5 AAC 39.164 will be appropriately modified.
Authority:
AS
						16.05.251