2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWELVE - Conservation (§§ 1-16 — 8162) › Subtitle 1 - Protection of Game and Fish (§§ 1-16 — 107u) › Chapter 2A - Fisheries (§§ 25 — 25o) › § 25 - Definitions

The terms used in this chapter shall have the meaning stated herein below:
(a) Aquaculture.— Farming of aquatic organisms in a controlled or semi-controlled environment, whether fresh, brackish or salt water, using technical or scientific methods.
(b) Law enforcement officer.— Means the Puerto Rico Police, the officers of the Ranger Corps of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, the boarding officials of the Puerto Rico Ports Authority, the Customs Service officers, the Coast Guard officers and the Municipal Guard, wherever an infraction occurs.
(c) Aquatic environments.— The seas, basins, estuaries, lagoons, rivers, streams, ponds, channels, waterways, swamps, bogs, wetlands and all other bodies of water in Puerto Rico that are not private property.
(d) Fishing gear.— Any artifact or device used for fishing, as defined in this chapter.
(e) Department.— The Department of Natural and Environmental Resources.
(f) License.— An authorization granted by the Secretary to fish aquatic or semiaquatic organisms in waters under Puerto Rico jurisdiction.
(g) Aquatic organism.— Species which depend on an aquatic environment in all stages of its life cycle.
(h) Semiaquatic organism.— Species which depend on an aquatic environment at any stage of its life cycle, excluding avifauna, insects and amphibians.
(i) Fish.— Any kind of aquatic or semiaquatic organism in any stage of its life cycle.
(j) Person.— Any natural or juridical person, including the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and its instrumentalities.
(k) Catch.— The product of fishing activity.
(l) Full-time commercial fisherman.— Natural person engaged in fishing for profit, who earns fifty percent (50%) or more of his/her annual income from fishing and holds a license issued by the Secretary to such effect.
(m) Part-time commercial fisherman.— Natural person engaged in fishing for profit, who earns less than fifty percent (50%) of his/her annual income from fishing and holds a license issued by the Secretary to such effect.
(n) Commercial fisherman apprentice.— Natural person learning the trade of fishing for profit, or applying for a license to engage in commercial fishing for the first time.
(o) Special fisherman.— Any natural person engaged in fishing for scientific research, or educational, or exhibition purposes, who holds a permit issued by the Secretary to such effect.
(p) Recreational fisherman.— Any natural person engaged in nonprofitable fishing for pleasure, sport, competition, or for consumption, who holds a license to such effect issued by the Secretary.
(q) Fishing.— Includes the trapping, catching, taking, harvesting, killing, wounding or removing [of] aquatic organisms by any method or by using or placing artifacts or devices for such a purpose.
(r) Fisheries.— Means one or more species (usually based on genetic relationship, geographical distribution, or migration pattern) of aquatic or semiaquatic organisms; or the fishing operations involving these species of organisms, which can be identified on the basis of geographic, scientific, technical, commercial, recreational, and economic characteristics.
(s) Secretary.— The Secretary of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources.
(t) Closed season.— Ban placed by the Secretary when, in his/her opinion, reliable scientific information advises that for the protection of the public health or the restoration of a fishery, it is necessary to partially or totally restrict the following activities:
(1) Fishing in specific locations.
(2) The use of fishing gear or fishing methods.
(3) Fishing of specific species, entirely or at any stage or state of its life cycle:
(A) By species.
(B) By stage of its life cycle.
(C) By size.
(D) By quantity.
Any close[d] season shall always comprise the fishing, transporting, or storing (whether alive, dead or refrigerated) [of] those fishery resources whose protection is sought.
History —Nov. 29, 1998, No. 278, § 2.