Louisiana Administrative Code › Title 76 - WILDLIFE AND FISHERIES › Part VII - Fish and Other Aquatic Life › Chapter 3 - Saltwater Sport and Commercial Fishery › Section VII-371 - Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) Requirements

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 6, June 20, 2024
A. The following provision regarding VMS
				shall be applicable to all provisions of law requiring the use of VMS except
				where required by
				R.S.
				56:433.1 and LAC 76:VII.525.
1. The vessel must have onboard a fully
				operational and approved VMS Device. Approved devices are those devices
				approved by NOAA Fisheries Service or the secretary of the Louisiana Department
				of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) for fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish
				fishery and which meet the minimum performance criteria specified in Paragraph
				2 of this Subsection. In the event that a VMS device is removed from the list
				of approved devices, vessel owners who installed an approved VMS prior to
				approval of any revised list will be considered in compliance with requirements
				of this Paragraph, unless otherwise notified by the LDWF.
2. Minimum VMS Performance Criteria. Basic
				required features of the VMS are as follows.
a. The VMS shall be satellite-based and
				tamper proof, i.e., shall not permit the input of false positions; furthermore,
				satellite selection must be automatic to provide an optimal fix and shall not
				be capable of being manually overridden.
b. The VMS shall be fully automatic and
				operational at all times, regardless of weather and environmental
				conditions.
c. The VMS shall be
				fully operable and capable of tracking the vessel in all of Louisiana coastal
				waters and throughout the Gulf of Mexico.
d. The VMS shall be capable of transmitting
				and storing information including vessel identification, date, time and
				latitude/longitude.
e. The VMS unit
				shall make all required transmissions to a designated and approved VMS vendor
				who shall be responsible for monitoring the vessel and reporting information to
				the LDWF.
f. The VMS shall provide
				accurate position transmissions every half-hour, except for those vessels
				operating solely under the out-of-state landing permit mentioned in Paragraph 3
				that require accurate position transmissions every hour, every day of the year,
				during required monitoring period. In addition, the VMS shall allow polling of
				individual vessels or any set of vessels at any time and permit those
				monitoring the vessel to receive position reports in real time. For the
				purposes of this specification, real time shall constitute data that reflect a
				delay of 15 minutes or less between the displayed information and the vessel's
				actual position.
g. The VMS vendor
				shall be capable of transmitting position data to a LDWF designated computer
				system via a modem at a minimum speed of 9600 baud. Transmission shall be in a
				file format acceptable to the LDWF. Such transmission must be made at any time
				upon demand of the LDWF.
h. The VMS
				vendor shall be capable of archiving vessel position histories for a minimum of
				three months, as transmitted by the VMS unit, and provide transmissions to the
				LDWF of specified portions of archived data in response to LDWF requests in a
				variety of media (tape, compact disc, etc.) as specified by the LDWF.
3. Operating Requirements. Except
				as provided in Paragraph 4 (power down exemption) of this Subsection, or unless
				otherwise required by law, all required VMS units must transmit a signal
				indicating the vessel's accurate position at least every half hour, 24 hours a
				day, throughout the year. However, those vessels operating solely under the
				out-of-state landing permit shall transmit a signal indicating the vessel's
				accurate position at least every hour, 24 hours a day throughout the
				year.
4. Power Down Exemption. Any
				vessel required to have on board a fully operational VMS unit at all times, as
				specified in Paragraph 3 of this Subsection, is exempt from this requirement
				provided:
a. the vessel will be continuously
				out of the water for more than 72 consecutive hours; and
b. a valid letter of exemption obtained
				pursuant to Subparagraph 5.a of the Subsection has been issued to the vessel
				and is on board the vessel is in compliance with all conditions and
				requirements of said letter.
5. Letter of Exemption
a. Application. A vessel owner may apply for
				a letter of exemption from the operating requirements specified in Paragraph 3
				of this Subsection for his/her vessel by sending a written request to the LDWF
				and providing the following: Sufficient information to determine that the
				vessel will be out of the water for more than 72 continuous hours; the location
				of the vessel during the time an exemption is sought; and the exact time period
				for which an exemption is needed (i.e., the time the VMS will be turned off and
				turned on again).
b. Issuance. Upon
				receipt of an application, the LDWF may issue a letter of exemption to the
				vessel if it is determined that the vessel owner provided sufficient
				information as required under Subparagraph 5.a of this Subsection and that the
				issuance of the letter of exemption will not jeopardize accurate monitoring of
				the vessel's position. Upon written request, the LDWF may change the time
				period for which the exemption was granted.
6. Presumption. If a VMS unit fails to
				transmit the required signal of a vessel's position, the vessel shall be deemed
				to have incurred a VMS violation, for as long as the unit fails to transmit a
				signal, unless a preponderance of evidence shows that the failure to transmit
				was due to an unavoidable malfunction, or disruption of the transmission that
				occurred while the vessel was declared out of the fishery, as applicable, or
				was not at sea.
7. Replacement.
				Should a VMS unit require replacement, a vessel owner must submit documentation
				to the LDWF Law Enforcement Division Headquarters VMS coordinator, within 3
				days of installation and prior to the vessel's next trip, verifying that the
				new VMS unit is an operational, approved system as described in this
				Section.
8. Access. All vessel
				owners shall allow the LDWF, and their authorized wildlife enforcement agents
				or designees access to the vessel's VMS unit and data, if applicable, and
				location data obtained from its VMS unit, if required, at the time of or after
				its transmission to the vendor or receiver, as the case may be.
9. Tampering. Tampering with a VMS, a VMS
				unit, or a VMS signal, is prohibited. Tampering includes any activity that is
				likely to affect the unit's ability to operate properly, signal, or accuracy
				compute the vessel's position fix.
10. Violation. Failure to abide by any
				regulation set forth regarding the use or operation of VMS, or failure to have
				VMS when required shall be a violation of the Louisiana Revised Statutes which
				mandates VMS and requirements of probation where applicable. All fish taken or
				possessed by a person in violation of these rules, and who is identified on his
				commercial license or permit as required to be VMS monitored, shall be deemed
				illegally taken and possessed. The provisions of this Section do not exempt any
				person from any other laws, rules, regulation, and license requirements for
				this or other jurisdictions. Violations of this Section shall constitute a
				violation of the Section of law requiring the use of VMS.
11. All costs and monthly fees associated
				with the installation, operation and monitoring of any VMS system in accordance
				with these rules shall be the responsibility of the person required to be
				monitored and shall be paid by him directly to the approved VMS supplier and
				monitoring facilitator.