REGULATION: PERTAINING TO SHARKS

VIRGINIA MARINE RESOURCES COMMISSION
EMERGENCY REGULATION 4 VAC 20-490-10 ET SEQ. "PERTAINING TO SHARKS"

PREAMBLE

This emergency chapter establishes gear restrictions, a possession limit, and limitations on the taking and landing of sharks. This emergency chapter is promulgated pursuant to authority contained in §§ 28.2-201 and 28.2-210 of the Code of Virginia.

This emergency chapter amends and re-adopts, as amended, previous chapter 4 VAC 20-490-10 Et Seq., which was adopted November 22, 2005 and effective December 1, 2005. The effective date of this emergency regulation, as amended, is November 29, 2006.

4 VAC 20-490-10. PURPOSE:

The purpose of this emergency chapter is to ensure the conservation of shark resources by preventing overfishing by commercial and recreational fisheries and to control the practice of finning.

4 VAC 20-490-20. DEFINITIONS:

The following words and terms, when used in this emergency chapter shall have the following meaning unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

"Carcass Length" means that length measured in a straight line from the anterior edge of the first dorsal fin to the posterior end of the shark carcass.

“COLREGS Line” means the COLREGS Demarcation lines, as specified in Coastal Pilot, 35th and 36th editions by Lighthouse Press.

“Control rule” means a time-certain date, past, present or future, used to establish participation in a limited entry fishery and may or may not include specific past harvest amounts.

“Dressed weight” means the result from processing a fish by removal of head, viscera, and fins, but does not include removal of the backbone, halving, quartering, or otherwise further reducing the carcass.

"Finning" means removing the fins and returning the remainder of the shark to the sea.

"Fork Length" means the straight-line measurement of a fish from the tip of the snout to the fork of the tail. The measurement is not made along the curve of the body.

“Large coastal shark group” means any of the following species:

      Sandbar, Carcharhinus plumbeus
      Silky, Carcharhinus falciformis
      Tiger, Galeocerdo cuvieri
      Blacktip, Carcharhinus limbatus
      Bull, Carcharhinus leucas
      Great hammerhead, Sphyrna mokarran
      Lemon, Negaprion brevirostris
      Nurse, Ginglymostoma cirratum
      Scalloped hammerhead, Sphyrna lewini
      Smooth hammerhead, Sphyrna zygaena
      Spinner, Carcharhinus brevipinna
"Longline" means any fishing gear that is set horizontally, either anchored, floating or attached to a vessel, and that consists of a mainline or groundline, greater than 1,000 feet in length, with multiple leaders (gangions) and hooks, whether retrieved by hand or mechanical means.

“Pelagic shark group” means any of the following species:

      Blue, Prionace glauca
      Oceanic whitetip, Carcharhinus longimanus
      Porbeagle, Lamna nasus
      Shortfin mako, Isurus oxyrinchus
      Thresher, Alopias vulpinus.

“Prohibited shark group” means any of the following species:

      Atlantic angel, Squatina dumerili
      Basking, Cetorhinus maximus
      Bigeye sand tiger, Odontaspis noronhai
      Bigeye sixgill, Hexanchus vitulus
      Bigeye thresher, Alopias superciliosus
      Bignose, Carcharhinus altimus
      Caribbean reef, Carcharhinus perezi
      Caribbean sharpnose, Rhizoprionodon porosus
      Dusky, Carcharhinus obscurus
      Galapagos, Carcharhinus galapagensis
      Longfin mako, Isurus paucus
      Narrowtooth, Carcharhinus brachyurus
      Night, Carcharhinus signatus
      Sand tiger, Odontaspis taurus
      Sevengill, Heptranchias perlo
      Sixgill, Hexanchus griseus
      Smalltail, Carcharhinus porosus
      Whale, Rhincodon typus
      White, Carcharodon carcharias

“Small coastal shark group” means any of the following species:

      Atlantic sharpnose, Rhizoprionodon terraenovae
      Blacknose, Carcharhinus acronotus
      Bonnethead, Sphyrna tiburo
      Finetooth, Carcharhinus isodon
"Spiny Dogfish" means any shark of the species Squalus acanthias.

4 VAC 20-490-30. GEAR RESTRICTIONS:

It shall be unlawful for any person to place, set, or fish any longline in Virginia's tidal waters.

4 VAC 20-490-35. SPINY DOGFISH QUOTA: (Repealed)

4 VAC 20-490-40. RECREATIONAL CATCH LIMITATIONS:

A. The taking, catching, or possessing aboard a vessel of more than one shark, from either the large coastal, small coastal, or pelagic group, per day, or the possession of more than one Atlantic sharpnose shark and one bonnethead shark per person, per day, shall constitute a violation of this regulation. When fishing from any boat or vessel where the entire catch is held in a common hold or container, the possession limits for Atlantic sharpnose shark or bonnethead shark shall be for the boat or vessel and shall be equal to the number of persons on board legally eligible to fish. The captain or operator of the boat or vessel shall be responsible for any boat or vessel possession limits.

B. It shall be unlawful for any person to retain or possess any prohibited shark.

C. It shall be unlawful for any person to possess any large coastal, small coastal or pelagic shark, except Atlantic sharpnose and bonnethead sharks, landed under the recreational catch limitations described in this section, that is less than 54 inches fork length or 30 inches in carcass length.

4 VAC 20-490-41. COMMERCIAL CATCH LIMITATIONS:

A.    It shall be unlawful for any person to take, harvest, land, or possess, for commercial purposes, any shark less than 58 inches in fork length or any shark carcass less than 31 inches in carcass length, from any waters west of the COLREGS Line.

B.    It shall be unlawful for any person to possess on board a vessel or to land in Virginia more than 4,000 pounds, dressed weight, of large coastal sharks per day. The person who owns or operates the vessel is responsible for compliance with the provisions of this subsection.

C.         It shall be unlawful for any person to fillet a shark at sea. A licensed commercial fisherman may eviscerate and remove the head and fins of sharks, but shall retain the fins with the dressed carcasses. While on board and when offloaded, wet shark fins shall not exceed 5 percent of the dressed weight of the carcasses. Possession of wet shark fins on board a vessel or at offloading that exceeds 5 percent of the dressed weight of the carcasses shall constitute a violation of this regulation.

D.  There are no commercial trip limits or possession limits for pelagic or small coastal sharks.

E. It shall be unlawful, for any person, to retain, possess or purchase any prohibited shark.

4 VAC 20-490-42. SPINY DOGFISH CATCH LIMITATIONS:

A.     It shall be unlawful for any person to take, possess aboard any vessel or land in Virginia any spiny dogfish harvested from federal waters (Exclusive Economic Zone (3-200 miles), for commercial purposes, after it has been announced that the federal quota for spiny dogfish has been taken.

B.    It shall be unlawful for any person to take, possess aboard any vessel or land in Virginia more than 600 pounds of spiny dogfish per day, from May 1 through October 30, or 4,000 pounds of spiny dogfish per day, from November 1, 2006 through April 30, 2007, for commercial purposes.

C. It shall be unlawful for any person to harvest any spiny dogfish, for commercial purposes, from state waters, after it has been announced that the Interstate quota for spiny dogfish has been taken.

D. All spiny dogfish harvested from state waters or federal waters, for commercial purposes, must be sold to a federally permitted dealer.

E.    It shall be unlawful for any buyer of seafood to receive any spiny dogfish, after any commercial harvest or landing quota described in this section has been attained and announced as such.

4 VAC 20-490-43. LIMITED ACCESS CONTROL RULE:

At such time the status of shark stocks or their fisheries warrant the establishment of a limited access program, for participation in the commercial fishery for sharks, a control rule may be enacted that limits participation in the commercial fisheries for sharks to those individuals who participated in that fishery on and before December 31, 2004. The control rule may also include eligibility requirements based on past harvest amounts.

4 VAC 20-490-45. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS: (Repealed)

4 VAC 20-490-50. FINNING:

It shall be unlawful for any person to engage in finning.

4 VAC 20-490-70. PENALTY:

As set forth in §28.2-903 of the Code of Virginia, any person violating any provision of this chapter shall be guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor, and a second or subsequent violation of any provision of this chapter committed by the same person within 12 months of a prior violation is a Class 1 misdemeanor.

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