In the personal use taking of groundfish,

1. (1) groundfish may be taken at any time, except lingcod may not be taken from December 1 through May 15;
2. (2) groundfish may be taken for personal use only by longline or hand held line, except that sablefish, Pacific cod, and rockfish, including thornyhead rockfish, may be taken for personal use only by longline, hand held line, or pot gear; for all groundfish, unattended gear must be marked as set out under 5 AAC 77.010(d);

3. (3) there are no daily bag or possession limits, except that

   1. (A) in the Sitka vicinity:

      1. (i) in Sitka Sound Special Use Area, which is that area of Sitka Sound enclosed on the north by lines from Kruzof Island at 57° 20.50' N. lat., 135° 45.17' W. long. to Chichagof Island at 57° 22.05' N. lat., 135° 43' W. long., and from Chichagof Island at 57° 22.58' N. lat., 135° 41.30' W. long. to Baranof Island at 57° 22.28' N. lat., 135° 40.95' W. long., and on the south and west by a line running from the southernmost tip of Sitka Point at 56° 59.38' N. lat., 135° 49.57' W. long. to Hanus Point at 56° 51.92' N. lat., 135° 30.50' W. long. to the green day marker in Dorothy Narrows to Baranof Island at 56° 49.28' N. lat., 135° 22.60' W. long., the daily possession limit for rockfish is three fish, of which no more than one may be a yelloweye rockfish (Sebastes ruberrimus);
      2. (ii) the waters off Cape Edgecumbe enclosed by a box defined as 56° 55.5' N. lat. and 56° 57' N. lat., and 135° 54' W. long. and 135° 57' W. long., are closed to fishing for all species of groundfish;
   2. (B) in the Ketchikan vicinity: in all waters of Section 1-E south of the latitude of Bushy Point Light and in the waters of Section 1-F north of lines from Point Alava to the southernmost tip of Ham Island, from Cedar Point to Dall Head, and from Dall Head to a point on the District 1 boundary in Clarence Strait at the latitude of Dall Head, the bag and possession limit for rockfish is three fish, no more than one of which may be yelloweye rockfish (Sebastes rubberrimus);
   3. (C) there is an annual limit for sablefish per household permit and a vessel limit as described in (6) of this section;

4. (4) a vessel or a person on board a vessel from which personal use fishing gear was used to take groundfish for personal use in the Northern Southeast Inside Subdistrict or the Southern Southeast Inside Subdistrict

   1. (A) may not operate commercial fishing gear to take groundfish for commercial purposes from that vessel until all groundfish taken in the personal use fishery have been offloaded from that vessel; and
   2. (B) is subject to the restrictions in 5 AAC 28.180;
5. (5) groundfish taken under personal use regulations may not be used as bait in a commercial fishery;

6. (6) sablefish may be taken for personal use only by pot, longline, or hand held line and only as follows:

   1. (A) a personal use fishing permit issued by the department under 5 AAC 77.015 is required to take sablefish; the department will issue only one sablefish personal use fishing permit per household per year;
   2. (B) a permit holder shall record sablefish harvest information on harvest recording forms provided by the department; there is an annual limit of 50 sablefish per household permit;

   3. (C) a permit holder's longline gear

      1. (i) may not have attached more than 350 hooks in the aggregate; and
      2. (ii) must be marked as specified in (2) of this section;
   4. (D) no more than 200 personal use sablefish may be retained on board a vessel when four or more sablefish personal use permit holders are present on board that vessel.

   5. (E) a permit holder's pot gear

      1. (i) may exceed two pots per permit holder or eight pots per vessel when four or more permit holders are present;
      2. (ii) may be longlined; and
      3. (iii) must have, for each pot, at least two circular escape rings with a minimum inside diameter of three and one-half inches installed on opposing vertical or sloping walls and must have individual tunnel eye openings with perimeters of 36 inches or less.

(Eff. 6/25/89, Register 110; am 4/23/98, Register 146; am 6/3/2000, Register 154; am 3/11/2001, Register 157; am 5/26/2006, Register 178; 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 6/27/2025, Register 254)

Authority: AS 16.05.251