1. (a) The Department of Fish and Game (department) and the Board of Fisheries (board) are charged with the duty to conserve and develop Alaska's salmon fisheries on the sustained yield principle. Therefore, the establishment of salmon escapement goals is the responsibility of both the board and the department working collaboratively. The purpose of this policy is to establish the concepts, criteria, and procedures for establishing and modifying salmon escapement goals and to establish a process that facilitates public review of allocative issues associated with escapement goals.

2. (b) The board recognizes the department's responsibility to

   1. (1) document existing salmon escapement goals for all salmon stocks that are currently managed for an escapement goal;
   2. (2) establish biological escapement goals (BEG) for salmon stocks for which the department can reliably enumerate salmon escapement levels, as well as total annual returns;
   3. (3) establish sustainable escapement goals (SEG) for salmon stocks for which the department can reliably estimate escapement levels when there is not sufficient information to enumerate total annual returns and the range of escapements that are used to develop a BEG;
   4. (4) establish sustained escapement thresholds (SET) as provided in 5 AAC 39.222 (Policy for the Management of Sustainable Salmon Fisheries);
   5. (5) establish escapement goals for aggregates of individual spawning populations with similar productivity and vulnerability to fisheries and for salmon stocks managed as units;
   6. (6) review an existing, or propose a new, BEG, SEG and SET on a schedule that conforms, to the extent practicable, to the board's regular cycle of consideration of area regulatory proposals;
   7. (7) prepare a scientific analysis with supporting data whenever a new BEG, SEG, or SET, or a modification to an existing BEG, SEG, or SET is proposed and, in its discretion, to conduct independent peer reviews of its BEG, SEG, and SET analyses;
   8. (8) notify the public whenever a new BEG, SEG, or SET is established or an existing BEG, SEG, or SET is modified;
   9. (9) whenever allocative impacts arise from any management actions necessary to achieve a new or modified BEG, SEG or SET, report to the board on a schedule that conforms, to the extent practicable, to the board's regular cycle of consideration of area regulatory proposals so that it can address allocation issues.

3. (c) In recognition of its joint responsibilities, and in consultation with the department, the board will

   1. (1) take regulatory actions as may be necessary to address allocation issues arising from implementation of a new or modified BEG, SEG, and SET;
   2. (2) during its regulatory process, review a BEG, SEG, or SET determined by the department and, with the assistance of the department, determine the appropriateness of establishing an optimal escapement goal (OEG); the board will provide an explanation of the reasons for establishing an OEG and provide, to the extent practicable, and with the assistance of the department, an estimate of expected differences in yield of any salmon stock, relative to maximum sustained yield, resulting from implementation of an OEG.
4. (d) Unless the context requires otherwise, the terms used in this section have the same meaning given those terms in 5 AAC 39.222(f).

(Eff. 6/22/2001, Register 158)

Authority: AS 16.05.251