The Alaska Board of Fisheries is implementing new shellfish regulations in Cook Inlet after the statewide meeting in late March, according to a press release from the state Department of Fish and Game.
Fisheries for hardshell clams, both butter and littleneck clams, are closed in all Cook Inlet and North Gulf Coast waters. This includes fisheries in Kachemak Bay. In the Cook Inlet area, the bag and possession limits of hardshell clams in the subsistence fishery were also reduced from 80 to 40 clams in combination.
For the West Cook Inlet and North Gulf Coast Razor Clams fisheries, the fish board instituted a bag and possession limit of 10 gallons in the sport and personal use fisheries. Additionally, clammers are now required to keep all clams dug to prevent wastage.
The board also adopted a management plan for the East Cook Inlet Razor Clams fishery.
In that plan, the board divided east Cook Inlet into two separate management plans: The northern area will be assessed with Clam Gulch abundance data and southern area will be assessed with Ninilchik data. The board also set a bag limit of 30 in the fishery from May through October.
Reach reporter Camille Botello at camille.botello@peninsulaclarion.com.
