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August 21, 2009 - Sport fishing guides are receiving $400 “late logbook submission” citations for failure to comply with NMFS regulations even though they contradict ADF&G logbook instructions. If you follow the submission instructions in your logbook you are at risk. It has been brought to our attention that there is a discrepancy between NMFS and ADF&G rules regarding timing of logbook reporting. The difference between the two requirements is that ADF&G allows for an eight day grace period in due date and NMFS does not. Federal law enforcement staff are adhering to their regulation and issuing citations. Until this matter can be rectified, we recommend that you follow the NMFS regulations in order to avoid a possible fine, ie send in your logbook entries within seven days of completing a charter trip rather than according to the ADF&G logbook instructions. SEAGO is trying to go to bat for you on this issue. We have been in contact with ADF&G and while they are sympathetic to the issue, unfortunately they have no control over this problem. As of this writing we have not heard back from NMFS. We will follow up with them to try to rectify the problem and reverse prior citations. . If you receive a citation for this issue, would you please contact John Blair at john@seagoalaska.org or call (925)366-6638? In your email please indicate the date and $ amount of fine along with your contact info. ----- Background. ADF&G rules state that logbook pages are to be returned weekly according to the schedule provided on the inside cover of your logbook. This schedule allows for an eight day grace period for submission: When the one halibut rule was implemented in June, 2009, reporting requirements were adopted unchanged from the proposed ruling published last December as follows: The difference is that the NMFS requirement omits provision for a grace period.
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