Definitions


  1. “Area Office” means the local area office of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Habitat.
  2. “Anadromous Fish” means a fish or fish species that spends portions of its life cycle in both fresh and salt waters, entering fresh water from the sea to spawn and includes the anadromous forms of pacific trout and salmon of the genus Oncorhynchus (rainbow and cutthroat trout and chinook, coho, sockeye, chum and pink salmon), Arctic char, Dolly Varden, sheefish, smelts, lamprey, whitefish, and sturgeon.
  3. “Atlas” means An Atlas to the Catalog of Waters Important for Spawning, Rearing or Migration of Anadromous Fishes.
  4. “Backwaters” means a portion of the water body formed by an eddy along channel margins downstream from obstructions such as bars, root wads, or boulders, or as the result of back-flooding upstream from an obstruction sometimes separated from the channel by sand or gravel bars.
  5. “Banks” means the portion of the stream channel cross section that restricts the lateral movement of water at normal bank-full levels often exhibiting a distinct break in slope from the stream bottom.
  6. “Bed” means the substrate, bounded by the stream banks, over or through which the water column flows.
  7. “Braided channels” means the intertwined branches or secondary channels of a river or stream and characterized by the separation and rejoining of two or more channels separated by bars or islands.
  8. “Catalog” means the Catalog of Waters Important for Spawning, Rearing or Migration of Anadromous Fishes.
  9. “Distributary” means a stream that flows away from, and does not rejoin, the main channel, and which usually flows to a sea, lake, stream, or other body of water.
  10. “Estuary” means a semi-enclosed coastal body of water with a free connection to the sea and in which seawater is measurably diluted with freshwater derived from land drainage.
  11. “Fish” means any species of aquatic finfish, invertebrate, or amphibian, in any stage of its life cycle, found in or introduced into the state, and includes any part of such aquatic finfish, invertebrate, or amphibian.
  12. “Fish Habitat” means any area on which fish depend, directly or indirectly, during any stage of their life cycle, including but not limited to areas of spawning, rearing, food supply, overwintering, or migration.
  13. “Lake” means an inland water body, permanent or seasonal, occupying a basin or hollow in the earth’s surface, which may or may not have a current or single direction of flow.
  14. “Mean high water” means a tidal datum used in referring to tidelands or the tidally affected portion of the stream, that is equal to the average of all high tides over a 19-year Metonic cycle, as established by the National Ocean Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
  15. “Mean lower low water” means a tidal datum used in referring to tidelands or the tidally affected portion of the stream, that is equal to the average of the lower of the two low tides of each day over a 19-year Metonic cycle, as established by the National Ocean Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
  16. “Migration” means the predictable, purposeful, or seasonal movement of fish, unrestricted by other than natural influences.
  17. “Mitigation” means measures which must be undertaken by an applicant to avoid, minimize, rectify, reduce, or compensate for potential adverse impacts to fish or fish habitat resulting from a proposed use or activity
  18. “Mouth” means a line drawn between the seaward extremities of the exposed tideland banks of any stream channel(s) at mean lower low water; a stream or river may have more than one mouth by virtue of having more than one channel that empties into a receiving body of water.
  19. “Permit” means the written approval by the commissioner of ADF&G or the commissioner’s authorized representative, in the form of a Fish Habitat Permit issued through an area office of the ADF&G, Division of Habitat, based on plans and specifications as required by either AS 16.05.841 or AS 16.05.871.
  20. “Pollute” means altering the physical, chemical or biological properties of a stream, river, or lake to the extent that the water fails to meet the Alaska Water Quality Standards for the “Growth and Propagation of Fish, Shellfish, Other Aquatic Life, and Wildlife” set forth in 18 AAC 70.010 - .990.
  21. “Polygon” means a geographic area of numerous water bodies or wetland areas that cannot be accurately mapped at the 1:63,360-scale and which are important for the spawning rearing or migration of anadromous fish. These polygons are listed in the Catalog with single point identifiers and delineated on the Atlas maps by a dashed line boundary. All waters within these polygons are considered specified anadromous fish bearing water bodies.
  22. “portion of the bed(s) and banks, up to the ordinary high water mark (OHW)” means (A) in the non-tidal portion of a river, lake, or stream: the portion of the bed(s) and banks up to which the presence and action of the non-tidal water is so common and usual, and so long continued in all ordinary years, as to leave a natural line or “mark” impressed on the bank or shore as indicated by erosion, shelving, changes in soil characteristics, destruction of terrestrial vegetation, or other distinctive physical characteristics; (B) in a braided river, lake, or stream: the area delimited by the natural line or “mark,” as defined in Part A above, impressed on the bank or shore of the outside margin of the most distant channels; or (C) in the tidally influenced portion of a river, lake, or stream: the portion of the bed(s) and banks below the (1) OHW as described in A or B above, or (2) mean high water elevation; whichever is higher at the project site.
  23. “Present” means documented occurrence of anadromous fish in specified water body through direct observation or due to extrapolation downstream from observation and documentation of spawning or rearing anadromous fish in a specified water body or water bodies located upstream.
  24. “Rearing” means the developmental life phase of a fish from fertilization of eggs to adult.
  25. “River” means a stream of fairly large size flowing in a definite course or channel, or a series of diverging and converging channels.
  26. “Slough” means (A) a low, swampy ground or overflow channels where water flows sluggishly for considerable distances; (B) a side channel slough formed by channelization; (C) a sluggish channel of water, such as a side channel of a stream, in which water flows slowly through low, swampy ground, or a section of an abandoned stream channel containing water most or all of the year, but with flow only at high water, and occurring in a flood plain or delta; (D) a marsh tract lying in a shallow, undrained depression on a piece of dry ground; (E) term used for a creek or sluggish body of water in a bottomland.
  27. “Spawning” means the deposition or fertilization of fish eggs, including preparation for deposition or fertilization.
  28. “Specified upper limit” means the documented upstream limit of anadromous fish use as depicted in An Atlas to the Catalog of Waters Important for Spawning, Rearing or Migration of Anadromous Fishes or listed in the Catalog of Waters Important for Spawning, Rearing or Migration of Anadromous Fishes.
  29. “Specified Water Body” means a river, stream, or lake, in its liquid or frozen state, its braided channels, distributaries, sloughs, backwaters, and estuaries, including the portion of the bed(s) and banks up to the ordinary high water mark, from its mouth to its specified upper limit as depicted in An Atlas to the Catalog of Waters Important for Spawning, Rearing or Migration of Anadromous Fishes or listed in the Catalog of Waters Important for Spawning, Rearing or Migration of Anadromous Fishes.
  30. “Stream” means a natural or artificial watercourse containing flowing water at least part of the year including a river, creek or tributary.