Alaska Administrative Code › Title 5 - Fish and Game › Part 1 - Commercial and Subsistence Fishing and Private Nonprofit Salmon Hatcheries › Chapter 38 - Miscellaneous Shellfish Fishery › Article 5 - Registration Area A (Southeastern Alaska) › 5 AAC 38.142 - Southeastern Alaska Geoduck Fishery Management Plan

Current through May 31, 2024
(a) The purpose of
				  the management plan under this section is to direct the department in the
				  management of the geoduck commercial fishery in Registration Area A
				  (Southeastern Alaska Area). In the management of the commercial geoduck
				  fishery, the department may consider paralytic shellfish poison (PSP)
				  levels.
(b) Unless the commissioner
				  determines otherwise, a permit described in
				  5 AAC 38.050 and
				  5 AAC 38.062 is not required to take geoducks in
				  Registration Area A.
(c) From
				  October 1 through September 30, geoducks may be taken only during fishing
				  periods established by emergency order.
(d) There is no size limit for
				  geoducks.
(e) A person must retain
				  all geoducks harvested by that person.
(f) A person may only take geoducks with dive
				  gear and while using a hand manually-operated, water jet device having a manual
				  shut-off valve and a nozzle with an inside diameter of not more than
				  seven-eighths inch. If the commissioner determines that the gear is being
				  operated in a manner that wastes the resource, destroys the resource, or causes
				  damage to geoducks or other fishery resources, the commissioner may close, by
				  emergency order, the fishing season and reopen a season in which the
				  commissioner modifies or prohibits the gear specified in this
				  subsection.
(g) The department
				  shall designate areas that are appropriate for commercial harvest of geoducks
				  according to stock assessment surveys conducted by the department. The
				  department shall establish a guideline harvest level for each area that has had
				  a biomass survey conducted and the department has designated for a commercial
				  geoduck fishery. The guideline harvest level will be based on estimates of
				  biomass derived from stock assessment surveys conducted on the stock within the
				  12 years that precede the opening of the commercial geoduck fishery in that
				  area. The guideline harvest level for each area will be calculated as two
				  percent of the most recent estimated biomass, per year. The commissioner may
				  modify these procedures by regulation based on new information regarding
				  geoduck productivity.
(h) The
				  commissioner may not open the commercial geoduck fishery in an area if the
				  estimated biomass of the geoduck stock in that area is less than 30 percent of
				  the original biomass determined by the first stock assessment conducted by the
				  department on that stock. The commissioner may modify this percentage if the
				  department receives information about geoduck productivity that supports a
				  modification.
(i) A person shall
				  attach a tag to each container that holds geoducks commercially harvested by
				  that person. The tag must indicate the date of harvest, the harvest location,
				  and the harvester's name. The person shall keep the tag attached to the
				  container while it is being transported to a processor or dealer.
(j) A person that commercially harvested
				  geoducks is required to submit a fish ticket under
				  5 AAC 39.130 and shall record on that fish ticket
(1) the pounds of geoducks
				  harvested;
(2) the area fished for
				  geoducks;
(3) the dive time, for
				  each area, given in minutes, for harvesting the geoducks specified on that fish
				  ticket; and
(4) any other
				  information the commissioner determines is necessary for the conservation and
				  management of the geoduck fishery.