Section 5 AAC 34.917 - Saint Matthew Island Section blue king crab harvest strategy(a) In the Saint Matthew Island Section, the conunissioner may, by emergency order, open the blue king crab fishery only if the department's preseason survey estimate of mature male blue king crab equals at least 50 percent of the 1978 - 2012 average survey estimate of mature males.(b) If the conunercial blue king crab fishery is open under (a) of this section, and the preseason survey estimate of mature males is (1) at least 50 percent but Jess than 100 percent of the 1978-2012 average survey estimate of mature males, the number of legal males available for harvest will be no more than 0.1 x M x (M/M1978-2012), where M = the current year preseason survey estimate of mature males, and M1978-2012= the1978-2012 average survey estimate of mature males, or 25 percent of the prescason survey estimate of legal males, whichever is less;(2) equal to or greater than the 1978-2012 average survey estimate of mature males, the number of legal males available for harvest will be no more than 10 percent of the preseason survey estimate of mature males or 25 percent of the preseason survey estimate of legal males, whichever is less. (c) In implementing this harvest strategy, the Alaska Board of Fisheries directs the department to use the best scientific information available and to consider the reliability of estimates of blue king crab, the manageability of the fishery, and any other factors it determines necessary to be consistent with sustained yield principles. (d) For the purposes of this section, (1) "prescason survey estimate" means the (A) population number present at the time of the preseason survey as estimated directly by the area-swept method from annual trawl survey data, if a stock-assessment model is not used for abundance estimation; (B) model-estimated population number present at the time of the preseason survey times the estimated survey selectivity and catchability, if a stock-assessment model is used for abundance estimation; (2) "legal males" means all male blue king crab at least (A) 5.5 inches in width of shell; or (B) 120 millimeters in length of shell, if only shell length measurements are available in the preseason survey data; (3) "mature males" means all male blue king crab at least 105 millimeters in length of shell.Eff. 8/31/2000, Register 155; am 8/24/2002, Register 163; am 8/14/2005, Register 175; em am 10/5/2009 - 2/1/2010, Register 192; am 6/10/2010, Register 194; am 6/27/2014, Register 210, July 2014; am 7/22/2017,Register 223, October 2017Authority:AS 16.05.060
AS 16.05.251