Sport and Personal Use Fishing Restrictions Related to Health Mandate 012

(Juneau) - The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is informing the public that Health Mandate 012 – Intrastate Travel states “all instate travel between communities, whether resident, worker, or visitor, is prohibited unless travel is to support critical infrastructure, or for critical personal needs”. Sport and personal use fishing have not been identified as supporting critical infrastructure or a critical personal need. The purpose of this mandate is to control the movement of individuals to communities within Alaska in order to prevent, slow, and otherwise disrupt the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

 

Although travel between communities is prohibited under the health mandate, the public may still travel to fishing locations. When traveling to participate in sport or personal use fisheries that occur outside of their communities of residence, the public must follow these guidelines: 1) Try to find the resource you intend to pursue as close to your home residence as possible; 2) Find out local mandates in communities through which you plan to travel before you leave. You must abide by them; 3) Totally provision your trip from your community of origin. Don’t plan on buying food, drinks or even fuel (if possible) after you begin your trip and until you return home; 4) Practice social distancing while sport or personal use fishing with anyone not considered part of your immediate household, including while traveling from your community to your fishing location; and 5) Wear face coverings as suggested in Health Alert 010 issued April 3, 2020.

 

Adherence to these stipulations will allow Alaskans the opportunity to fish and put food on their tables while taking measures to protect public health and allow time to build needed health infrastructure. Please adhere to the stipulations to ensure these opportunities can continue. Be safe and considerate of others.

 

The state of Alaska will be reevaluating Health Mandate 012 on April 21, 2020 and these restrictions will be in effect until that time.

 

The full text of Health Mandate 012 can be found at:

 

https://gov.alaska.gov/home/covid19-healthmandates/

 

and FAQs specific to this mandate can be found at:

 

http://dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/id/Pages/COVID-19/default.aspx

 

#20-2921

Fishing Forums to be Hosted Temporarily Online

(Statewide) - The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) Division of Sport Fish, will be temporarily moving the monthly fishing forums online beginning this month. The online fishing forums will be available on the Alaska Department of Fish and Game YouTube channel.

 

Our first online fishing forum titled, “Smoking, Canning, and Pickling Fish” will go through the steps of all three processes, two of which also apply to game meat. This fishing forum will be available Wednesday, April 22, 2020, at 6:05 p.m on YouTube. ADF&G staff will be available to answer any questions in real-time from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the YouTube chat.

 

Looking to have the most interactive experience possible? Visit the ADF&G-wefishak Facebook page, and join the watch party event at the scheduled date and time above. The link to the YouTube video will be posted in the event after a brief live introduction, and viewers will be encouraged to click that link and watch the video. Questions about the video can be posed in the event discussion during the entire watch party, or on YouTube chat. Questions will be answered as they are received. At 7:30 p.m. after the video concludes, the presenter will go live again and answer any remaining questions and give some additional resources for viewers.

 

Pending how this delivery method is received, the Division hopes to continue serving our anglers by hosting fishing forums online until they can resume in person again. This is a free event for anyone wishing to watch and ask questions.

 

For more information, please contact the forum organizer Molly McCarthy-Cunfer at (907) 444-6030.

 

#20-2923

ADF&G Seeking Volunteers to Test Mobile Application

(Headquarters) - The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is in the early design phase of the development of a mobile application for anglers and hunters. We are seeking volunteers for surveys and/or beta testing of the application and to provide feedback on the workflow, functionality, ease of use, look and feel etc. of the mobile application.

“This is an exciting time for The Alaska Department of Fish and Game,” Deputy Commissioner Ben Mulligan said. “The purpose of this mobile application is to better serve and inform people who fish and hunt in Alaska. As such, we would really value public input as we move forward in the development process.”

The first stage of the review process will involve volunteers looking at the functionality, ease of use and overall look and feel of the mobile application. Volunteers will be selected randomly from the list of registered individuals with valid email addresses and will be contacted with instructions on how to participate. Upon completion of the initial review process, comments will be collected and addressed. ADF&G and Timmons Group (the company developing the mobile application) will work to further develop the mobile application and upon completion of the work, a second round of volunteer testing will commence.

The mobile application is expected to be released in early 2021.

If you are interested in providing feedback as we develop the mobile application, please complete this online registration https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/adfg_mobile_app . Volunteer registration will only be available from April 22 through May 8. Volunteers will be contacted via email after May 8 with instructions on how to access and provide feedback. The volunteer registration process should take roughly 1 to 3 minutes to complete.

If you have questions, please email ryan.ragan@alaska.gov.

#20-2924