Section 20. Definitions  


Latest version.
  • 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.

    "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.

    "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

    Shortfin mako, Isurus oxyrinchus

    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

    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 straight-line measurement of a fish from the tip of the snout to the fork of the tail. The measurement is not made along 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

    Shortfin mako, Isurus oxyrinchus

    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

    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."

    "Spiny dogfish" means any shark of the species Squalus acanthias.

Historical Notes

Derived from VR450-01-0063 § 2, Volume 11, Issue 22, eff. July 1, 1995; amended, Virginia Register Volume 13, Issue 18, eff. May 1, 1997; Volume 17, Issue 03, eff. October 15, 2000; Volume 22, Issue 08, eff. December 1, 2005; Volume 25, Issue 14, eff. March 1, 2009; Volume 26, Issue 06, eff. November 1 2009; Volume 26, Issue 14, eff. March 1, 2010; Volume 26, Issue 19, eff. May 1, 2010; Volume 27, Issue 23, eff. July 1, 2011; Volume 29, Issue 19, eff. May 1, 2013; Volume 30, Issue 15, eff. March 1, 2014; Volume 31, Issue 04, eff. October 1, 2014; Volume 32, Issue 15, eff. March 1, 2016; Volume 32, Issue 17, eff. April 1, 2016.

Statutory Authority

§ 28.2-201 of the Code of Virginia.