Arkansas Administrative Code › Agency 003 - DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE › Division 11 - State Plant Board › Rule 003.11.07-003 - Circular 21: Rules on Aquaculture in Arkansas - Official Standards for the Certification of Commercial Bait and Ornamental Fish in Arkansas

Current through Register Vol. 49, No. 6, June, 2024
SECTION I.
Official Standards for the Certification of Commercial Bait and
			 Ornamental Fish in Arkansas
A.
Purpose
To provide high quality, farm-raised bait and ornamental fish,
				free of certain diseases, undesirable plants, undesirable animals, and other
				contaminates deemed injurious to fish or fisheries.
B.
Authority
The Arkansas State Plant Board, a division of the Arkansas
				Agriculture Department, under act 1449 of 2005, is the official certifying
				agent.
C.
Pathogenic
			 and Aquatic Nuisance Species (ANS)
Within the detection limits of the appropriate official testing
				protocol, commercial bait and ornamental fish meeting these standards are
				certified free of the pathogens, plants, animals and other contaminates listed
				here:
a. Spring Viremia of Carp
			 (SVCV)
b. Infectious Pancreatic
			 Necrosis (IPNV)
c. Viral
			 Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHSV)
d.
			 Infectious Hematopoietec Necrosis (IHNV)
e. Eurasian watermilfoil
{Myriophyllum spicatum)
f. Giant Salvinia
(Salvinia
			 molesta)
g. Hydrilla
(Hydrilla verticillata)
h. Zebra mussel
{Dreissena
			 polymorpha)
i. New Zealand
			 mud snails
{Potamopyrgus antipodarum)
j. Red-rimmed melania
{Melanoides
			 tuberculata)
k.
			 Sticklebacks (Family Gasterosteidae)
l. Rudd
{Scardinius
			 erythrophthalmus)
m. Orfe
(Leuciscus idus)
n. Silver carp
(Hypophthalmichthys
			 molitrix)
o. Bighead carp
{Hypophthalmichthys nobilis)
D.
Definitions
APHIS
: Acronym for the U.S. Department
				of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
Certified Producer
: A Fish Farmer
				approved under these standards to represent their fish as
Arkansas
				Certified.
Fishery
: A region of water used for
				commercial and/or sport fishing.
Fish Farm
: A location and/or business
				entity established for the commercial culture of fish, under the continuous
				management of a fish farmer.
Fish Farmer
: For the purpose of these
				standards, the holder of a valid
Fish Farmer (aquaculturist)
				Permit
issued by the Arkansas Game and Fish
				Commission.
E.
Eligibility Requirements
To be designated as
Arkansas Certified,
bait
				and ornamental fish must:
a. have been
			 spawned, hatched, and reared in Arkansas on a fish farm,
b. have been raised in accordance with the
			 practices and procedures defined in these standards,
c. have met all inspection and testing
			 requirements defined in these standards,
d. and, be accompanied by a valid Arkansas
			 Agriculture Department certificate.
F.
Fees
i. The annual fee to the Plant Board for
			 Certification shall be one dollar per surface acre of all ponds used to produce
			 certified fish.
ii. The fee to the
			 Plant Board for additional ANS inspections required for farms failing annual
			 inspections shall be one dollar per pond surface acre.
Note: Fees for veterinary supervision of disease sample
				collection and lab fees for disease testing are not included in the Plant Board
				fees and must be negotiated between the farm and the service providers.
G.
Application for
			 Participation
Farmers wishing to have their fish certified under these
				guidelines must make application on official Plant Board forms.
H.
Cultural Practices and
			 Business Procedures
As part of the application process, farmers (the individual
				holding the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission
Fish Farmer Permit)
must sign an affidavit agreeing to strictly adhere to the following
				cultural practices and business procedures:
a. Will culture only those species listed on
			 the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission
Approved Aquaculture Species List
or by Arkansas Game and Fish Commission permit..
b. Use only water from wells or recycled
			 water from within the farm proper without mixture with outside waters or
			 contact with non- certified fish. Surface waters from any uncertified area of
			 the farm may not be recycled to any certified area of the farm.
c. No fish will be stocked into any pond used
			 for the production of certified fish unless they come from a source certified
			 under these guidelines. In special circumstances, such as the availability of
			 new species or breeds, and under strict control with reliable documentation,
			 fish farmers may request exemption from this subparagraph and the Plant Board
			 will respond to the request within 10 working days.
d. If only a portion of a participating farm
			 is to be certified, it must be separated from the uncertified portion according
			 to a biosecurity plan approved by the Plant Board. The uncertified portion must
			 not be used to produce any fish species also sold by the farm as
			 certified.
e. There will be no
			 production or participation in the commerce of any salmonids species or any of
			 the non-fish aquatic nuisance species listed in paragraph C.
Pathogenic
			 and Aquatic Nuisance Species.
f. Silver carp and bighead carp may not be
			 stocked into bait or ornamental fish production ponds.
g. Certified fish may only be loaded on
			 trucks into dry or disinfected tanks using water from the certified producer's
			 fish farm. Trucks carrying uncertified fish may enter the loading area of a
			 certified farm, but any tanks containing fish or water from an uncertified
			 source must remain closed while loading or unloading certified fish.
h. If any fish or water from an uncertified
			 source are to be unloaded into the holding facility of a certified farm, the
			 water and fish must be separated from certified fish according to a biosecurity
			 plan approved by the Plant Board.
i. No individuals, trucks, or equipment
			 including boots, nets, and buckets may enter any area that has contact with or
			 drains into any water used by the farm for certified fish production if those
			 individuals, trucks, or equipment have had contact with fish or water not
			 included in the Arkansas Certification program or from wild fisheries. Such
			 individuals, trucks, or equipment that have been disinfected just prior to
			 entrance may enter these areas.
I.
Inspections
The Director of the State Plant Board or his agent may conduct
				investigations and/or make inspections as necessary to assure conformity with
				these standards. In particular, at least annually, the Plant Board shall make
				an on farm inspection of water sources, ponds, fish handling areas, equipment
				and records of fish sales and purchases.
As part of this annual inspection, an inspector from the Plant
				Board will visit the farm once per year during the summer. A visual check of
				50% of the total number of ponds on the farm will be made for snail species,
				zebra mussels and specific aquatic plants. All of the ponds must be inspected
				at least once every 2 years. One pond edge will be examined for listed plants
				and snails and a hard surface (e.g., pier, post, drainpipe, aerator float) will
				be checked for zebra mussels. Any suspect plants or mollusks will be collected
				and submitted to an expert for confirmation. For fish species, visual
				inspection of farm holding vats will be conducted to insure that certified fish
				species being held in vats do not contain the listed ANS. Farm records will be
				examined for evidence of commerce in listed species.
In addition to Plant Board inspections, as part of the
				bi-annual sampling offish for disease testing, the independent agent sampling
				fish will make note of the observance of any aquatic nuisance species. The
				Agent will preserve any unidentified fish species taken as a part of normal
				sampling procedures and submit those specimens along with disease testing
				samples to an independent APHIS approved laboratory for identification.
Farms that do not pass these inspections may not label or
				represent their fish as certified until all aquatic nuisance species have been
				eradicated and confirmed by a successful inspection. In addition, in order to
				maintain their certified status, these farms will undergo an additional aquatic
				nuisance species inspection one month after the first successful post
				eradication inspection. This follow up inspection will not be conducted during
				a period when the aquatic nuisance species would not be expected to be present,
				but will occur when conditions for detection are favorable.
J.
Disease Testing
Each year, the certified producer or new applicants, must
				provide documentation of two consecutive years of disease free status from an
				independent laboratory approved by APHIS to test for the listed pathogens.
				Sampling, analysis and reporting is to be conducted as follows:
The sample must be 150 fish and must include moribund (sick)
				fish observed during the sampling process. It must be collected twice per year.
				Once during the months of October, November or December and once during the
				months of March, April or May.
Collection of the sample must be overseen by an APHIS
				accredited DVM. The collection must be made under the direct observation of the
				overseer to an extent that the official can attest to the origin of the fish
				and that the sampling scheme was appropriate to meet the standards detailed
				below.
The sample should include all of the ponds and grow out tanks
				and the final species and age composition of the sample should reflect the
				overall composition of the certified fish on the farm. For example, if the farm
				has 5 ponds of koi and 10 ponds of goldfish to be certified, the final sample
				of 150 fish should be from all of the ponds and should be 33 % koi and 67 %
				goldfish with each pond offish equally represented. For a 150 fish sample, you
				would need 50 koi (10 from each of the 5 ponds), and 100 goldfish (about 10
				from each of the 10 ponds). For farms with more than 50 ponds, all species and
				sizes offish must be included in each sample, but the ponds may be sampled in
				rotation so that all ponds are sampled at least once every two years.
It is not appropriate to sample fish from shipping and sorting
				facilities where fish are held for brief periods. The origin of these fish
				cannot be known with certainty and they may represent only a very low
				percentage of the fish lots present on the farm. Small numbers of some species
				may be efficiently captured with a dip net along the pond margin; other species
				may have to be captured with a small seine. In some cases, fish traps are
				appropriate. They may be placed in the ponds by the farmer but the sampling
				official must be present to oversee the checking of the traps and the removal
				offish from the traps for the sample. Fish collected and removed from the ponds
				by the farmer without direct supervision by the overseer are not appropriate.
				Be sure to include any moribund fish that are observed during the
				sampling.
Farms testing positive for a listed pathogen may not label or
				represent their fish as certified until they have undergone a Plant Board
				supervised eradication, disinfection, re-establishment with fish from a
				certified source and have then re-established a 2-year history of disease free
				inspections according to the rules of this program. All Plant Board fees must
				be paid during the re-establishment period.
K.
Certificates and Labeling
Producers accepted into the certification program will be
				issued official certificates, which are to be completed at the time the fish
				are loaded. Certificates are valid until the fish leave the certified
				producer's control. All certificates will bear the shipment date and shipper
				invoice number along with description of the shipment. All will expire within 2
				weeks of issuance.
L.
Transference of Certification
A certified producer may purchase fish from another certified
				producer then deliver those fish under their own certificate given that they
				receive a valid certificate from the seller and maintain that certificate in
				their records for inspection by the Plant Board.