Upper Cook Inlet Commercial Fishing Announcement No. 13 opens commercial salmon fishing with drift gillnets in Drift Gillnet Area 1 and the Expanded Kenai and Expanded Kasilof sections (Figure 1) of the Upper Subdistrict on Friday, July 15, 2016 from 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m.
According to 5 AAC 21.353(c)(2) Central District Drift Gillnet Fishery Management Plan, at run strengths greater than 2.3 million sockeye salmon to the Kenai River, the commissioner may, by emergency order, open one additional 12-hour fishing period in the Expanded Kenai and Expanded Kasilof Sections of the Upper Subdistrict and Drift Gillnet Area 1.
The passage rate of sockeye salmon into the Kenai and Kasilof rivers is proceeding at a rate greater than that needed to assure optimum escapement levels. In order to reduce the rate of passage and harvest surplus Kenai and Kasilof river sockeye salmon, fishing in the abovedescribed area is warranted.
During this fishing period, fishing with drift gillnets in the Expanded Kenai and Expanded Kasilof sections those waters within one mile of the mean high tide mark north of the Kenai River and within one and one-half miles of the mean high tide mark south of the Kenai River are closed.
