Opinion ID: 1196827
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Jurisdiction over the vessel's fishing activities in waters beyond Alaska's three-mile territorial limit.

Text: There is some dispute over whether the American Eagle was operating within or beyond the three-mile territorial limit of state waters when the regulations were allegedly violated. [9] However, assuming the operations were beyond the three-mile limit, we conclude that the state possesses valid authority to regulate crab fishing in these waters. This precise question was decided in State v. Bundrant, 546 P.2d 530 (Alaska), appeal dismissed sub nom. Uri v. State, 429 U.S. 806, 97 S.Ct. 40, 50 L.Ed.2d 66 (1976), a decision published one week after the American Eagle allegedly violated the law. In Bundrant we upheld the state's exercise of regulatory jurisdiction over crab fisheries beyond the three-mile limit against arguments based on federal exclusivity, preemption, and other doctrines. [10] This power to regulate beyond the territorial boundary, where the crab spend much of their life cycle, was shown in that case to be clearly necessary if the economically and ecologically important migratory crab population within the state's territorial boundary is to be perpetuated. 546 P.2d at 557. [11] Although some of the specific statutes and regulations questioned in this case differ from those discussed in Bundrant, both cases involve challenges by fishermen who reside in another state to Alaska laws which prohibit the taking or possession of king crab outside the territorial limit of state waters, or the subsequent transport and sale of crab within Alaska waters. [12] We therefore reaffirm Bundrant, as applied to this case.