Contact:
Dan Bosch
Area Sport Fish Biologist
Phone: (907) 267-2315
March 30, 2012
The Board of Fisheries made changes to the Prince William Sound noncommercial shrimp plan during the statewide shellfish meeting in March 2012. Primarily, the board removed language from the plan to manage the noncommercial fisheries (including sport, personal use and subsistence) to achieve a 60 percent allocation. As a result, the shrimp pot limit remains at five per person, with a maximum of five per vessel, with no annual preseason adjustments. Maintaining the shrimp pot limit at five per person with a maximum of five per vessel, with no annual preseason adjustments, is expected to bring greater stability and certainty to the fisheries and allow for continued growth.
New regulations going into effect for the commercial pot shrimp fishery restrict commercial harvest to no more than 25 percent of the guideline harvest level from any one statistical area. Additionally, the waters of Port Nellie Juan, which had been closed by regulation to commercial harvest in 2009, will be open to commercial harvest when the fishery is next prosecuted in Area 2 (Figure 1), potentially in 2014. The commercial fishery this year will be prosecuted in Area 3.
The total allowable harvest level of shrimp in Prince William Sound is determined each year by incorporating previous year’s harvest levels for both noncommercial and commercial fisheries and catch per unit effort data from an annual pot shrimp survey conducted by the department in October. The Prince William Sound noncommercial shrimp fishery management plan divides that total allowable harvest between the commercial fishery (40 percent) and the noncommercial fisheries (60 percent). For the 2012 season, the total allowable harvest is 128,100 pounds with 51,240 pounds allocated to the commercial fishery, and a harvest level of 76,860 pounds for the noncommercial fisheries. In past seasons, management actions were taken by emergency order preseason to adjust the number of pots to best achieve the 60 percent noncommercial allocation.
Board Modifies Prince William Sound Shrimp Plan, Maintains Five-pot Limit