Virginia Administrative Code › Title 4 - CONSERVATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES › Agency 20 - MARINE RESOURCES COMMISSION › Chapter 490 - PERTAINING TO SHARKS › Section 4VAC20-490-20 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 40, No. 24, July 15, 2024
The following words and terms when used in this chapter shall
				  have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates
				  otherwise.
"Agent" means any person who possesses the Commercial
				  Fisherman Registration License, fishing gear license, or fishing permit of a
				  registered commercial fisherman in order to fish that commercial fisherman's
				  gear or sell that commercial fisherman's harvest.
"Annual quota" means Virginia's 10.795% share of the annual
				  coastwide commercial spiny dogfish quota managed by the Atlantic States Marine
				  Fisheries Commission.
"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.
"Circle Hook" means a non-offset, non-stainless steel hook
				  with the point turned sharply and straight back toward the shank.
"COLREGS Line" means the COLREGS Demarcation Line, as defined
				  in the Code of Federal Regulations (33 CFR
				  80.510 Chesapeake Bay Entrance, VA).
"Commercial shark fisherman" means any commercial fisherman
				  permitted to land or possess sharks (excluding spiny dogfish) that has landed
				  and sold one pound of shark or more (excludes spiny dogfish) in that calendar
				  year (January 1 through December 31).
"Commercially permitted aggregated large coastal shark" means
				  any of the following species:
Blacktip, Carcharhinus limbatus
Bull, Carcharhinus leucas
Lemon, Negaprion brevirostris
Nurse, Ginglymostoma cirratum
Silky, Carcharhinus falciformis
Spinner, Carcharhinus brevipinna
Tiger, Galeocerdo cuvier
"Commercially permitted hammerhead shark" means any of the
				  following species:
Great hammerhead, Sphyrna mokarran
Scalloped hammerhead, Sphyrna lewini
Smooth hammerhead, Sphyrna zygaena
"Commercially permitted nonblacknose small coastal shark"
				  means any of the following species:
Atlantic sharpnose, Rhizoprionodon terraenovae
Bonnethead, Sphyrna tiburo
Finetooth, Carcharhinus isodon
"Commercially permitted pelagic shark" means any of the
				  following species:
Blue, Prionace glauca
Oceanic whitetip, Carcharhinus longimanus
Porbeagle, Lamna nasus
Thresher, Alopias vulpinus
"Commercially prohibited shark" means any of the following
				  species:
Atlantic angel, Squatina dumeril
Basking, Cetorhinus maximus
Bigeye sand tiger, Odontaspis noronhai
Bigeye sixgill, Hexanchus nakamurai
Bigeye thresher, Alopias superciliosus
Bignose, Carcharhinus altimus
Blacknose, Carcharhinus acronotus
Caribbean reef, Carcharhinus perezii
Caribbean sharpnose, Rhizoprionodon porosus
Dusky, Carcharhinus obscurus
Galapagos, Carcharhinus galapagensis
Longfin mako, Isurus paucus
Narrowtooth, Carcharhinus brachyurus
Night, Carcharhinus signatus
Sand tiger, Carcharias taurus
Sevengill, Heptranchias perlo
Shortfin mako, Isurus oxyrinchus
Sixgill, Hexanchus griseus
Smalltail, Carcharhinus porosus
Whale, Rhincodon typus
White, Carcharodon carcharias
"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 length of a fish measured from the
				  most forward projection of the snout, with the mouth closed, to the fork of the
				  tail along the midline, using a straight-line measure, not measured over the
				  curve of the body.
"Large mesh gill net" means any gill net with a stretched
				  mesh of greater than five inches.
"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.
"Movable gill net" means any gill net other than a staked
				  gill net.
"Permitted commercial gear" means rod and reel, handlines,
				  shark shortlines, small mesh gill nets, large mesh gill nets, pound nets, and
				  weirs.
"Recreational shore angler" means a person neither fishing
				  from a vessel nor transported to or from a fishing location by a vessel.
"Recreational vessel angler" means a person fishing from a
				  vessel or transported to or from a fishing location by a vessel.
"Recreationally permitted shark" means any of the following
				  species:
Atlantic sharpnose, Rhizoprionodon terraenovae
Blacknose, Carcharhinus acronotus
Blacktip, Carcharhinus limbatus
Blue, Prionace glauca
Bonnethead, Sphyrna tiburo
Bull, Carcharhinus leucas
Finetooth, Carcharhinus isodon
Great hammerhead, Sphyrna mokarran
Lemon, Negaprion brevirostris
Nurse, Ginglymostoma cirratum
Oceanic whitetip, Carcharhinus longimanus
Porbeagle, Lamna nasus
Scalloped hammerhead, Sphyrna lewini
Smooth dogfish, Mustelus canis
Smooth hammerhead, Sphyrna zygaena
Spinner, Carcharhinus brevipinna
Thresher, Alopias vulpinus
Tiger, Galeocerdo cuvier
"Recreationally prohibited shark" means any of the following
				  species:
Atlantic angel, Squatina dumeril
Basking, Cetorhinus maximus
Bigeye sand tiger, Odontaspis noronhai
Bigeye sixgill, Hexanchus nakamurai
Bigeye thresher, Alopias superciliosus
Bignose, Carcharhinus altimus
Caribbean reef, Carcharhinus perezii
Caribbean sharpnose, Rhizoprionodon porosus
Dusky, Carcharhinus obscurus
Galapagos, Carcharhinus galapagensis
Longfin mako, Isurus paucus
Narrowtooth, Carcharhinus brachyurus
Night, Carcharhinus signatus
Sand tiger, Carcharias taurus
Sandbar, Carcharhinus plumbeus
Sevengill, Heptranchias perlo
Shortfin mako, Isurus oxyrinchus
Silky, Carcharhinus falciformis
Sixgill, Hexanchus griseus
Smalltail, Carcharhinus porosus
Whale, Rhincodon typus
White, Carcharodon carcharias
"Research only shark" means any of the following
				  species:
Sandbar, Carcharhinus plumbeus
"Shark shortline" means a fish trotline that is set
				  horizontally, either anchored, floating or attached to a vessel, and that
				  consists of a mainline or groundline, 1,000 feet in length or less, with
				  multiple leaders (gangions) and no more than 50 corrodible circle hooks,
				  whether retrieved by hand or mechanical means.
"Small mesh gill net" means any gill net with a stretched
				  mesh of equal to or less than five inches.
"Smooth dogfish" means any shark of the species Mustelus
				  canis. Smooth dogfish are also known as "smoothhound shark."
"Snout" means the most forward projection from a fish's head
				  that includes the upper and lower jaw.
"Spiny dogfish" means any shark of the species Squalus
				  acanthias.
Statutory Authority: § 28.2-201 of the Code of
					 Virginia.