If you keep a finfish that carries an annual harvest limit in Alaska, you have to write that catch down on the spot. The Alaska harvest record card is the free form used by anglers who fish without a standard sport fishing license; everyone else uses the harvest record already printed on their license. Either way, the rule is the same: record the date, the body of water, and the species immediately, in ink, before the fish goes anywhere. The requirement comes from 5 AAC 75.006 and applies statewide, in fresh and salt water alike.1Justia Law. Alaska Administrative Code Title 5 – 5 AAC 75.006 Harvest Record for Finfish With an Annual Limit
Who Needs the Card and Who Already Has a Record
If you bought a standard Alaska sport fishing license, the harvest record is printed on the license itself. Nothing else to pick up. The separate harvest record card exists for anglers who are allowed to fish without a license and therefore have no built-in place to log a catch.
Three groups fall into that category:
- Alaska residents under 18, who are exempt from the sport fishing license requirement.
- Nonresidents under 16, also exempt.
- Holders of a Permanent Identification (PID) card, available free to Alaska residents age 60 or older, and holders of a Disabled Veteran (DAV) card, available to disabled veterans with a service-connected disability of 50% or greater.
Anyone in those groups who plans to keep a species with an annual limit needs a harvest record card in their possession. The card is free at ADF&G offices, license vendors, and as a printable PDF on the department’s website.2Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Sport Fishing Licenses and King Salmon Stamps
What to Write Down, and When
The moment you land a fish with an annual limit and decide to keep it, three pieces of information go on your harvest record: the date, the body of water where you caught it, and the species. On a paper card or a paper license record, the entry must be made in ink.3Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Sport Fishing Annual Harvest Record Card
Immediately means immediately. A kept fish with a blank record is treated the same as no record at all. “I was about to write it down” doesn’t get you out of a citation. Keep a pen where the fish is, not where the truck is.
Which Fish Trigger the Recording Requirement
The rule applies to any finfish for which an annual harvest limit has been set by regulation or by emergency order.1Justia Law. Alaska Administrative Code Title 5 – 5 AAC 75.006 Harvest Record for Finfish With an Annual Limit King salmon and rainbow trout are the species most commonly subject to annual limits, but the specific list, and the specific limit, depends on the management area.3Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Sport Fishing Annual Harvest Record Card
Before a trip, look at the Sport Fishing Regulations Summary booklet for the region you’re fishing. Limits can also change mid-season through emergency orders, so it’s worth checking for updates in the days before you go out.
Using the ADF&G Mobile App
ADF&G’s mobile app lets you record harvests digitally, and lets you display licenses, permits, and harvest records on your phone. Those digital displays are valid when an enforcement officer asks to see your documentation.4Alaska Department of Fish and Game. ADF&G Mobile App
The convenience is real. So is the failure mode. A dead battery, a dropped phone, or no signal at the wrong moment doesn’t excuse a missing record. If you use the app, carry a paper harvest record card as backup. It costs nothing and weighs nothing.
If You Lose Your Card
Replacing a lost or destroyed harvest record card is free. The catch is that you’re legally required to transfer every prior entry onto the new card.3Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Sport Fishing Annual Harvest Record Card If you can’t reconstruct what was on the old one, you’re stuck. A quick phone photo of the card after each entry, or a written backup log, solves this before it becomes a problem.
The same transfer rule applies if you buy a duplicate or additional sport fishing license during the year. Any fish already recorded on the original license has to be copied onto the new one.1Justia Law. Alaska Administrative Code Title 5 – 5 AAC 75.006 Harvest Record for Finfish With an Annual Limit
Proxy Fishing
Alaska allows a licensed resident angler to fish as a proxy for a qualifying beneficiary. Beneficiaries must be Alaska residents who are blind, have a physical or developmental disability, or are 65 or older.5Legal Information Institute. Alaska Administrative Code 5 AAC 75.011 – Sport Fishing by Proxy
A proxy must carry the beneficiary’s original fishing license or identification card (not a photocopy) along with a validated proxy fishing form from ADF&G. Before hiding the fish from view or leaving the fishing site, the proxy records the date, body of water, species, approximate weight, and number of fish on the proxy form, in addition to any entries required on the beneficiary’s harvest record.5Legal Information Institute. Alaska Administrative Code 5 AAC 75.011 – Sport Fishing by Proxy The proxy then has 30 days to personally deliver the fish to the beneficiary.
Fishing Offshore in Federal Waters
One boundary worth knowing: in the federal Exclusive Economic Zone, the waters between 3 and 200 nautical miles from shore, all anglers follow nonresident regulations, including nonresident annual limits for king salmon and the recording requirements that go with them.6Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Sport Fishing Regulations for King Salmon in Southeast Alaska Being an Alaska resident doesn’t carry your resident limits with you past three miles offshore.
Penalties
The violations stack. Not carrying your harvest record card is one offense. Having an unrecorded kept fish is another. ADF&G’s own example for a king salmon puts the fines at roughly $100 for not recording the fish and $100 for not carrying the card, with court costs added on top.7Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Sport Fishing Harvest Record Card
The fines are not the worst of it. Fish and gear may be subject to forfeiture under Alaska statute.3Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Sport Fishing Annual Harvest Record Card Enforcement officers can seize the catch and equipment on the spot, and recovering gear after a forfeiture proceeding is neither quick nor guaranteed.
Harvest Reports Are a Separate Requirement
Recording on your card in the field is not the same thing as filing a harvest report after the season. Some sport and personal use fisheries require you to submit a post-season harvest report to ADF&G by a specific deadline, whether or not you caught anything. Reporting requirements, deadlines, and submission methods depend on the fishery and the permit, so check the conditions printed on your permit or spelled out in the regulations for that fishery.
Skipping a required report can carry real consequences. In permit-based fisheries, failing to report can make you ineligible for permits the following regulatory year, and Alaska Wildlife Troopers may issue a citation on top of that. If you held a permit for a fishery with a reporting requirement, file the report even if you never went out. A zero-harvest report still counts as a filed report.