Alaska Administrative Code › Title 5 - Fish and Game › Part 1 - Commercial and Subsistence Fishing and Private Nonprofit Salmon Hatcheries › Chapter 27 - Herring Fishery › Article 2 - General Specifications › 5 AAC 27.060 - Bering Sea Herring Fishery Management Plan

Current through May 31, 2024
(a) The department
				  shall follow the directives of the Bering Sea Herring Management Plan, as well
				  as the regulations that govern the individual herring fisheries, when managing
				  the commercial herring fisheries that take place in the Bering Sea.
(b) Unless otherwise specified in this
				  chapter, the department shall manage the fisheries so that the exploitation
				  rate on eastern Bering Sea herring stocks does not exceed 20 percent of the
				  biomass of those stocks.
(c) The
				  following thresholds are minimum biomass levels for each herring fishing
				  district. When the department estimates, in season, that the biomass in a
				  district is below its threshold, the department may not allow a commercial
				  harvest of herring in that district.
District Thresholds (s.t.)
Port Moller
					 ............................................................1,000
Togiak
					 ................................................................35,000
Security Cove
					 ..........................................................1,200
Goodnews Bay
					 ...........................................................1,200
Cape Avinof
					 ..............................................................500
Nelson Island
					 ..........................................................3,000
Nunivak Island
					 .........................................................1,500
Cape Romanzof
					 ..........................................................1,500
Norton Sound
					 ...........................................................7,000
(d) The department shall
				  manage the herring food and bait fishery that takes place in the Unimak,
				  Akutan, and Unalaska Districts and that portion of the Umnak District east of
				  Samalga Pass (Dutch Harbor fishery) so that it is allocated seven percent of
				  the allowable Togiak District herring fishery harvest determined under the
				  provisions of the Bristol Bay Herring Management Plan in
				  5 AAC 27.865.
(e) Repealed 4/7/90.
(f) Repealed 4/7/90.
(g) When the Togiak District is below its
				  threshold, the Dutch Harbor fishery must be closed for that season.
(h) When any of the southwest Alaska herring
				  stocks, from Security Cove to Port Clarence, is below its threshold identified
				  in (c) of this section, the department shall close the Dutch Harbor food and
				  bait herring fishery for that season. For the purpose of determining the need
				  for this closure, the threshold level for the Nelson Island herring stock is
				  2,000 short tons. If the department determines it necessary to close the Dutch
				  Harbor food and bait herring fishery under this subsection, the department
				  shall not reallocate the herring harvest set for the Dutch Harbor food and bait
				  herring fishery under
				  5 AAC 27.865(b)(4) to the Togiak
				  District herring fishery.
Authority:
AS
						16.05.060
AS 16.05.251
AS
						16.05.258