1. (a) In the Northern Southeast Inside Subdistrict and Southern Southeast Inside Subdistrict, sablefish may be taken only with longlines and pots.
2. (b) In the Southeast District, a longline vessel may have aboard or use for taking bait a gillnet with mesh size of not over two and one-half inches and made of not greater than Number 20 gillnet thread.
3. (c) In the Northern and Southern Southeast Inside Subdistricts, flatfish (flounder and sole) may be taken in a directed trawl fishery only by beam trawl gear, and only under the authority of a permit issued by the commissioner under ( l) of this section. In the permit the commissioner may specify open areas, fishing periods, gear and operating specifications, observer requirements, and completion of logbooks, available from the department, by the vessel operator.

4. (d) In the Southeast District,

   1. (1) lingcod may be taken only by longline, dinglebar troll gear, power troll gear, hand troll gear, and mechanical jigging machines, except that in a directed fishery for lingcod, lingcod may be taken only by dinglebar troll gear, hand troll gear, and mechanical jigging machines;
   2. (2) repealed 7/18/2003;

   3. (3) Pacific cod, rockfish, shortspine thornyhead rockfish, and longspine thornyhead rockfish may be taken only by longline, dinglebar troll gear, power troll gear, hand troll gear, mechanical jigging machines, and pots, except that

      1. (A) in a directed fishery for pelagic shelf rockfish, pelagic shelf rockfish may be taken only by dinglebar troll gear, hand troll gear, and mechanical jigging machines;
      2. (B) in a directed fishery for demersal shelf rockfish, demersal shelf rockfish may be taken only by longline, dinglebar troll gear, hand troll gear, and mechanical jigging machines;
   4. (4) repealed 7/18/2003.
5. (e) In areas open to a directed fishery for flatfish (flounder and sole) using beam trawl gear in the Northern and Southern Southeast Inside Subdistricts, a registered shrimp beam trawl vessel may trawl for flatfish using beam trawl gear in an area closed to shrimp trawling, if a cod-end mesh of at least five inches stretched measure is used.
6. (f) In the Eastern Gulf of Alaska Area, pots may not be longlined, except that pots may be longlined in the Northern Southeast Inside Subdistrict and Southern Southeast Inside Subdistrict sablefish fishery, directed Pacific cod fishery, and groundfish bait fishery as described in 5 AAC 28.190. In a directed fishery for sablefish, pots used to take sablefish must have at least two circular escape rings with a minimum inside diameter of three and one-half inches installed on opposing vertical or sloping walls.
7. (g) Repealed 7/14/2000.

8. (h) In the Eastern Gulf of Alaska Area,

   1. (1) an operational unit of dinglebar troll gear consists of a train made from a single line to which one or more leaders, lures, or baited hooks are attached, that is fastened to a single troll wire, and that is deployed and retrieved with a single power troll gurdy or a single hand troll gurdy with a terminally attached weight pulled through the water while a vessel is making way; only one operational unit of dinglebar troll gear may be onboard a vessel or deployed from the vessel at or below the surface of the water at a time; weights, including dinglebars, cannon balls, and other fishing weights, must be disconnected from the troll wires of all other gurdies that are mounted on the vessel; additional trains may not be trailed behind the vessel;
   2. (2) a mechanical jigging machine is a device that deploys a single line with lures or baited hooks and retrieves that line with electrical, hydraulic, or mechanically powered assistance; a mechanical jigging machine allows the line to be fished only in the water column, in a manner that the hooks connected to the line are fished above the seafloor; a mechanical jigging machine line may not be deployed while the vessel is making way under mechanized propulsion; the mechanical jigging machine line may not be anchored to the seafloor or operated unattached from the vessel; no more than five mechanical jigging machines may be operated from a vessel, with no more than 30 hooks per line operated from a mechanical jigging machine.
9. (i) Repealed 7/18/2003.
10. (j) Repealed 7/14/2000.
11. (k) A person may not operate a vessel that is using dinglebar troll gear and mechanical jigging machines at the same time.
12. (l) In the Eastern Gulf of Alaska Area, groundfish may be taken by trawl gear only under the authority of a permit issued by the commissioner, if the commissioner determines that issuing the permit is not inconsistent with 5 AAC 39.210.

(Eff. 7/30/89, Register 111; am 4/30/91, Register 118; am 4/15/94, Register 130; am 6/15/97, Register 142; am 6/14/2000, Register 154; am 7/5/2000, Register 155; am 7/14/2000, Register 155; am 7/18/2003, Register 167; am 7/13/2012, Register 203; am 5/9/2015, Register 214; am 6/17/2018, Register 226; am 9/25/2022, Register 243; am 6/25/2023, Register 246; am 6/27/2025, Register 254)

Authority: AS 16.05.251