635-005-0240 Definitions As used in Division 005 regulations: (1) “Animals living intertidally on the bottom” means any benthic animal with a natural range that includes intertidal areas, regardless of where harvest occurs, and includes but is not limited to, starfish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, snails, bivalves, worms, coelenterates, and crabs except Dungeness crab. (2) “Bait” means food fish not harvested for human consumption. (3) “Board” means the Commercial Fishery Permit Board. (4) “Buy” includes offer to buy, barter, exchange or trade. (5) “Catastrophic loss” means direct loss of non-deployed gear in the event of a vessel being destroyed due to fire, capsizing, or sinking. Documentation of a catastrophic loss may include any information the Department considers appropriate, such as fire department or US Coast Guard reports. (6) “Commercial landing cap” means the total landed catch of a given species, or species group, that may be taken in a single calendar year in Oregon commercial fisheries. (7) “Commercial purposes” means taking food fish with any gear unlawful for angling or taking or possessing food fish in excess of the limits permitted for personal use, or taking, fishing for, handling, processing, or otherwise disposing of or dealing in food fish with the intent of disposing of such food fish or parts thereof for profit, or by sale, barter or trade, in commercial channels, as specified in ORS 506.006. (8) “Commission” means the State Fish and Wildlife Commission created by ORS 496.090. (9) “Crab pot” means any portable, enclosed device used to take crab with one or more gates or entrances that allows crab restricted entry and exit, and has a line attached to surface floats. (10) “Crab ring” means any fishing device used to take crab that allows crab unrestricted entry or exit while fishing, and has a line attached to surface floats. (11) “Department” means the State Department of Fish and Wildlife. (12) “Derelict Dungeness crab gear” means Dungeness crab gear which was lost, forgotten, damaged, abandoned or otherwise deserted. (13) “Director” means the Director of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife appointed pursuant to ORS 496.112. (14) “Dive gear” means gear used while a fisher is submerged underwater in order to take food fish and includes, but is not limited to, one or more of the following equipment: SCUBA or other surface supplied air source (hookah gear), dive mask, snorkel, air cylinders, weight belt, wetsuit and fins. (15) “Dungeness crab gear” means crab pots, crab rings or a combination thereof used for taking Dungeness crab. (16) “Exclusive Economic Zone” means the zone between 3-200 nautical miles offshore of the United States. (17) “Fishing gear” means, as specified in ORS 506.006, any appliance or device intended for or capable of being used to take food fish for commercial purposes, and includes: (a) “Fixed gear” means longline, trap or pot, set net, and stationary hook-and-line (including vertical hook-and-line) gears; (b) “Gillnet” has the meaning as set forth in OAR 635-042-0010; (c) “Hook-and-line” means one or more hooks attached to one or more lines; (d) “Lampara net” means a surrounding or seine net with the sections of netting made and joined to create bagging, and is hauled with purse rings; (e) “Longline” means a stationary buoyed, and anchored groundline with hooks attached; (f) “Mesh size” means the opening between opposing knots. Minimum mesh size means the smallest distance allowed between the inside of one knot to the inside of the opposing knot regardless of twine size; (g) “Pot or trap” means a portable, enclosed device with one or more gates or entrances and one or more lines attached to surface floats; (h) “Purse seine” means a floated and weighted encircling net that is closed by means of a purse line threaded through rings attached to the bottom of the net. Purse seine gear includes, but is not limited to, ring net, drum purse seine, and lampara nets; (i) “Seine” means any non-fixed net other than a trawl or gillnet and includes all types of purse seines; (j) “Setline” means a bottom longline used in rivers and estuaries for targeting white sturgeon; (k) “Set net” means a stationary, buoyed and anchored gillnet or trammel net which takes fish commonly by gilling and is not free to move or drift with the current or tide; (l) “Spear” means a sharp, pointed, or barbed instrument on a shaft; (m) “Trammel net” means a gillnet made with two or more walls joined to a common float line; (n) “Trawl gear” means a cone or funnel-shaped net which is towed or drawn through the water by one or two vessels, and includes but is not limited to beam trawl, bobbin or roller trawl, bottom trawl, pelagic trawl and Danish and Scottish seine gear; (o) “Troll” means fishing gear that consists of one or more lines that drag hooks with bait or lures behind a moving fishing vessel, and which lines are affixed to the vessel and are not disengaged from the vessel at any time during the fishing operation; and (p) “Vertical hook and line” means a line attached to the vessel or to a surface buoy vertically suspended to the bottom by a weight or anchor, with hooks attached between its surface and bottom end. (18) “Fishing trip” means a dock-to-dock transit during which fishing for commercial purposes occurs and is followed by a landing. (19) “Food Fish” means any animal over which the State Fish and Wildlife Commission has jurisdiction pursuant to ORS 506.036. (20) “Groundfish” means all species of ocean food fish defined as groundfish in the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan and in the Federal Groundfish Regulations, Title 50, Part 660 (See OAR 635-004-0240). (21) “Intertidal” means the area in Oregon coastal bays, estuaries, and beaches between mean extreme low water and mean extreme high water boundaries. (22) “Land, Landed or Landing” means either of the following: (a) For fisheries where food fish were taken by use of a vessel, “land, landed or landing” means to begin transfer of food fish from a vessel. Once transfer begins, all food fish on board the vessel are counted as part of that landing, except anchovies being held live on a vessel for the purpose of using for bait in that vessel’s commercial fishing operation; and (b) For fisheries where food fish were taken without use of any vessel, “land, landed or landing” means to begin transfer of food fish from a harvester to a wholesale fish dealer, wholesale fish bait dealer, or food fish canner, under which the following provisions apply: (A) When the harvester and the wholesale fish dealer, wholesale fish bait dealer, or food fish canner are the same person or entity, transfer occurs when the food fish arrive at the licensed premises of the wholesale fish dealer, wholesale fish bait dealer, or food fish canner; and (B) Once transfer begins, all food fish from the harvest area are counted as part of that landing. (23) “Length” or “Overall Length” of a vessel means the manufacturer's specification of overall length, United States Coast Guard or Marine Board registered length documentation stating overall length or overall length as surveyed by a certified marine surveyor. In determining overall length, marine surveyors shall measure in a straight line parallel to the keel from the foremost part of the vessel to the aftermost part, excluding sheer and excluding bow sprits, boomkins, rudders aft of the transom, outboard motor brackets, or transom extensions as in a dive step or platform. (24) “Ocean Dungeness Crab fishing season” means the period normally from December 1 of one year through August 14 of the next year and is specific to the ocean Dungeness crab fishery. In periods where a season delay occurs, “ocean Dungeness crab fishing season” means from the date the fishery opens to the following August 14. (25) “Oyster” includes oysters, oyster seed, oyster cultch, and oyster shell. (26) “Pacific Ocean” means all water seaward of the end of the jetty or jetties of any river, bay, or tidal area, except the Columbia River boundary with the Pacific Ocean is as specified in OAR 635-003-0005, or all water seaward of the extension of the shoreline high watermark across the river, bay, or tidal area where no jetties exist. (27) “Permit holder” means a person or entity that owns an individual permit or owns the vessel to which a vessel permit is attached. A lessee of a permit is not a permit holder. (28) “Possession” means holding any food fish, shellfish or parts thereof in a person's custody or control. (29) “Process or Processing” means fresh packaging requiring freezing of food fish, or any part thereof, or any type of smoking, reducing, loining, steaking, pickling or filleting. Cooking crab is not considered processing. (30) “Replacement vessel” is a vessel purchased to replace a Limited Entry permitted vessel which has been lost due to fire, capsizing, sinking or other event. (31) “Resident” means an actual bona fide resident of this state for at least one year, as specified in ORS 508.285. (32) “Salmon” means all anadromous species of salmon, including but not limited to: (a) Oncorhynchus gorbuscha, commonly known as humpback, humpies or pink salmon. (b) Oncorhynchus keta, commonly known as chum or dog salmon. (c) Oncorhynchus kisutch, commonly known as coho or silver salmon. (d) Oncorhynchus nerka, commonly known as sockeye, red or blueback salmon. (e) Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, commonly known as Chinook salmon. (33) “Security interest” means an interest in a vessel or permit granted by the owner of the vessel or permit to a third party under a security agreement, pursuant to ORS chapter 79, another state's laws enacted to implement Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code or equivalent federal statutory provisions for federally documented vessels. (34) “Seine skiff” means an open vessel which travels with a larger fishing vessel at all times and is used solely at the direction of the operator of the larger fishing vessel to assist that larger fishing vessel in the deployment and retrieval of seine nets to take fish. (35) “Sell” includes to offer or possess for sale, barter, exchange or trade. (36) “Shared Ecosystem Component Species” means those ecosystem component species shared between all of the Pacific Fishery Management Council's Fishery Management Plans which occur in the Pacific Ocean off Oregon and include: (a) Mesopelagic fishes of the families Myctophidae, Bathylagidae, Paralepididae, and Gonostomatidae; (b) Pacific sand lance (Ammodytes personatus, previously Ammodytes hexapterus); (c) Pacific saury (Cololabis saira); (d) Silversides of the family Atherinopsidae; (e) Smelts of the family Osmeridae; and (f) Pelagic squids of the families Cranchiidae, Gonatidae, Histioteuthidae, Octopoteuthidae, Ommastrephidae except Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas), Onychoteuthidae, and Thysanoteuthidae. (37) “Shellfish Sanitation Certificate” means a license required by Oregon Department of Agriculture to engage in business of harvesting, distributing or processing of oysters, clams, mussels and scallops for human consumption. (38) “Special Regulation Marine Areas” means specific areas described in OAR 635-039-0090 and the “Oregon Sport Fishing Regulations,” which includes all Marine Gardens, Subtidal Research Reserves, Intertidal Research Reserves, Habitat Refuges, and other areas closed to designated activities. (39) “Take” means fish for, hunt, pursue, catch, capture or kill or attempt to fish for, hunt, pursue, catch, capture or kill. (40) “Transport” means transport by any means and includes offer or receive for transportation. (41) “Trip limit” means the total amount of fish that may be taken and retained, possessed, or landed per vessel from a single fishing trip or cumulatively per unit of time. A vessel which has landed its cumulative or daily limit may continue to fish on the limit for the next legal period as long as the fish are not landed until the next period. Trip limits may be: (a) “Bi-monthly cumulative trip limit” means the maximum amount of fish that may be taken and retained, possessed or landed per vessel in specified bi-monthly periods. There is no limit on the number of landings or trips in each period, and periods apply to calendar months. The specified periods are as follows: (A) Period 1: January through February; (B) Period 2: March through April; (C) Period 3: May through June; (D) Period 4: July through August; (E) Period 5: September through October; and (F) Period 6: November through December. (b) “Daily trip limit” means the maximum amount of shellfish that may be taken and retained, possessed or landed per vessel in 24 consecutive hours, starting at 00:01 hours local time; (c) “Monthly trip limit” means the maximum amount of fish that may be taken and retained, possessed or landed per vessel during the first day through the last day of any calendar month. (d) “Weekly trip limit” means the maximum amount of fish that may be taken and retained, possessed or landed per vessel in 7 consecutive days, starting at 00:01 hours local time on Sunday and ending at 24:00 hours local time on Saturday. Weekly trip limits may not be accumulated during multiple week trips. If a calendar week falls within two different months or two different cumulative limit periods, a vessel is not entitled to two separate weekly limits during that week. (42) “Undue hardship” means death, serious illness requiring extended care by a physician, permanent disability, or other circumstances beyond the individual’s control. (43) “Unlawful to buy” means that it is unlawful to buy, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that the fish have been illegally taken or transported within this state, or unlawfully imported or otherwise unlawfully brought into this state. (44) “Vessel” means any floating craft, powered, towed, rowed or otherwise propelled which is used for landing or taking food fish for commercial purposes. (45) “Vessel operator” means the person onboard a fishing vessel who is responsible for leading a fishing vessel in fishing or transit operations, and who signs the corresponding electronic fish ticket or dock receipt from that fishing trip. A vessel operator may be a vessel owner or permit holder or both, individual hired to operate a vessel, or lessee of a vessel, permit or both. Although more than one person may physically operate a vessel during a fishing trip or transit, there may only be one person identified as a vessel operator (commonly referred to as a captain or skipper) on a fishing vessel during any one fishing trip or transit. (46) “Vessel owner” means any ownership interest in a vessel, including interests arising from partnerships, corporations, limited liability corporations, or limited liability partnerships. A vessel owner does not include a leasehold interest. (47) “Waters of this state” means all waters over which the State of Oregon has jurisdiction, or joint or other jurisdiction with any other state or government, including waters of the Pacific Ocean and all bays, inlets, lakes, rivers and streams within or forming the boundaries of this state. Statutory/Other Authority: ORS 506.119 Statutes/Other Implemented: ORS 506.129 & ORS 506.109 History: DFW 150-2025, amend filed 12/31/2025, effective 01/01/2026 DFW 56-2023, amend filed 06/28/2023, effective 06/28/2023 DFW 22-2023, amend filed 03/17/2023, effective 03/18/2023 DFW 39-2021, amend filed 04/08/2021, effective 04/09/2021 DFW 147-2019, amend filed 09/30/2019, effective 01/01/2020 DFW 149-2016, f. 12-7-16, cert. ef. 1-1-17 Renumbered from 635-005-0001, DFW 76-2012, f. 6-28-12, cert. ef. 7-1-12 DFW 142-2008, f. & cert. ef. 11-21-08 DFW 61-2002, f. & cert. ef. 6-14-02 Reverted to FWC 30-1985, f. 6-27-85, ef. 7-1-85 FWC 39-1992(Temp), f. & cert. ef. 6-19-92 FWC 137-1991(Temp), f. 12-20-91, cert. ef. 12-23-91 FWC 30-1985, f. 6-27-85, ef. 7-1-85