(Released: April 13, 2020)

CONTACT: Tom Taube
Deputy Director
(907) 465-6184


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

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