State opens leftover South Alaska Peninsula cod to pot boats as jig catch falls short

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game will open the last of this year's South Alaska Peninsula state-waters Pacific cod to both pot and jig boats at noon Friday, after jig fishermen left about 387,000 pounds uncaught.

The area's cod is split between two fleets. Pot boats get 85% of the catch in state waters, which reach 3 nautical miles from shore, and jig boats get 15%. Through Oct. 21, pot boats had landed about 6.83 million pounds, slightly more than their share. Jig boats had landed about 728,000 pounds of their 1.19 million.

The leftover is the jig fleet's unused fish. The area's management plan lets the state open it to all legal gear once the federal Western Gulf of Alaska pot season wraps up.

A week later, the state will loosen the rules further. At 12:01 am Oct. 31, it will drop the area's limits of 58 feet per boat and 60 pots per boat. It will also drop exclusive registration, which ties a boat to this one area for the year, so boats registered elsewhere can come fish. The plan allows that if managers find the catch limit would not otherwise be reached by Dec. 31.

The season runs until the remaining fish are caught or Dec. 31, whichever comes first. ADF&G's Kodiak office issued both orders Thursday.

The state set the area's catch limit at about 6.3 million pounds in December, then raised it 26% to about 7.9 million pounds in February after an updated federal stock assessment. The pot season lasted less than three weeks, from March 12 to March 30.

Boats still need a Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission permit card for their gear and an ADF&G state-waters registration, and pot boats must call the Kodiak office for daily catch reporting before they fish.