Fisheries, Subsistence, and Habitat
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Division: Sport Fish
Title: Upper Cook Inlet Salmon Personal Use Harvest Monitoring (2013-2015).
Author: Dunker, K.
Year: 2013
Report ID: Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Regional Operational Plan ROP.SF.2A.2013.03, Anchorage.
Abstract: Prior to the state’s subsistence priority law in 1978, individuals could meet their needs for fish under the subsistence fishing regulations in Cook Inlet. Court actions changed the definition of subsistence in 1978 and precluded some from participating in customary and traditional subsistence fisheries. The Board of Fisheries (BOF) countered these court changes by creating a new fishery class called “personal use” in areas that have a surplus of salmon beyond escapement, subsistence, commercial and sport needs. The intent of personal use fishing regulations are to permit the taking of fish when that take does not jeopardize the sustained yield of the resource and does not negatively impact an existing resource use or is in broad public interest (Alaska Administrate Code (5 AAC 77.001)). With the establishment of area personal use fisheries, management plans and regulations governing harvest opportunities were implemented to ensure salmon harvests are sustainable. Harvest monitoring is essential for sustained yield salmon management. This operational plan focuses on four of the personal use salmon fisheries that occur in Upper Cook Inlet (UCI) above Anchor Point. A single permit authorizes an Alaskan resident to participate in all four fisheries. The timing of these personal use fisheries capitalizes on sockeye salmon abundance.
Keywords: Sockeye salmon, Upper Cook Inlet, Anchorage Point, Kenai River, Kasilof river, personal use fisheries, gillnet fishery, dipnet fishery