Bill Text: CA SB1310 | 2017-2018 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Fishing: Dungeness crab.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Passed) 2018-09-21 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 663, Statutes of 2018. [SB1310 Detail]
Download: California-2017-SB1310-Amended.html
Amended
IN
Assembly
June 19, 2018 |
Amended
IN
Senate
April 09, 2018 |
Senate Bill | No. 1310 |
Introduced by Senator McGuire (Coauthor: Senator Hill) |
February 16, 2018 |
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
(7)Existing law authorizes the Department of Fish and Wildlife, in consultation with the Dungeness crab task force, to develop regulations as necessary to provide for the retrieval of lost or abandoned commercial crab traps. Existing law requires the department, as part of those regulations, to establish a retrieval permit program that grants a person who obtains a retrieval permit the authority to retrieve during the closed season of the Dungeness crab commercial fishery lost or abandoned Dungeness crab traps belonging to another person and to receive compensation for that retrieval on a per trap basis.
Existing law requires the department to establish a fee to be charged to a Dungeness crab vessel permitholder for each trap belonging to the permitholder that is retrieved through the program. Existing law prohibits the department from renewing a Dungeness crab vessel permit until any fee imposed pursuant to the program has been paid. Existing law authorizes the department to use entities in addition to the department, including, but not limited to, nongovernmental organizations, to help implement the program.
This bill would require the department, upon renewal of a Dungeness crab vessel permit, to notify the permitholder that the department may, to support local retrieval efforts, disclose the permitholder’s contact, license, and permit information to an entity helping to implement the program. The bill would authorize the department, upon notification of the permitholder, to disclose this information to the entity, subject to the entity’s agreement that the
information will be kept confidential and will only be used to identify and contact the owners of recovered crab gear.
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Digest Key
Vote: 2/3 Appropriation: YES Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: YESBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 5523 of the Fish and Game Code is amended to read:5523.
(a) (1) If the Director of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, in consultation with the State Public Health Officer, determines, based on thorough and adequate scientific evidence, that any species or subspecies of fish is likely to pose a human health risk from high levels of toxic substances, the Director of Fish and Wildlife may order the closure of any waters or otherwise restrict the taking in state waters of that species.SEC. 2.
Section 8276 of the Fish and Game Code is amended to read:8276.
Except as provided in Section 8276.2 or 8277:SEC. 3.
Section 8276.2 of the Fish and Game Code is amended to read:8276.2.
(a) The director may order a delay in the opening of the Dungeness crab fishery after December 1 in Districts 6, 7, 8, and 9 in any year. The delay in the opening shall not be later than January 15 of any year.SEC. 4.
Section 8276.3 of the Fish and Game Code is amended to read:8276.3.
(a) If there is any delay ordered by the director pursuant to Section 8276.2 in the opening of the Dungeness crab fishery in Districts 6, 7, 8, and 9, a vessel shall not take or land crab within Districts 6, 7, 8, and 9 during any closure.SEC. 5.
Section 8276.4 of the Fish and Game Code is amended to read:8276.4.
(a) The Ocean Protection Council shall make a grant, upon appropriation of funding by the Legislature, for the development and administration of a Dungeness crab task force. The membership of the Dungeness crab task force shall be comprised of all of the following:SEC. 6.
Section 8276.5 of the Fish and Game Code is amended to read:8276.5.
(a) In consultation with the Dungeness crab task force, or its appointed representatives, the director shall adopt a program, by March 31, 2013, for Dungeness crab trap limits for all California permits. Unless the director finds that there is consensus in the Dungeness crab industry that modifications to the following requirements are more desirable, with evidence of consensus, including, but not limited to, the record of the Dungeness crab task force, the program shall include all of the following requirements:SEC. 7.
Section 8279.1 of the Fish and Game Code is amended to read:8279.1.
(a) A person shall not take, possess onboard, or land Dungeness crab for commercial purposes from a vessel in ocean waters for 30 days after the opening of those waters for the commercial Dungeness crab fishing season, if both of the following events have occurred:SEC. 8.
Section 8280 of the Fish and Game Code is amended to read:8280.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares that the Dungeness crab fishery is important to the state because it provides a valuable food product, employment for those persons engaged in the fishery, and economic benefits to the coastal communities of the state.SEC. 9.
Section 8280.1 of the Fish and Game Code is amended to read:8280.1.
(a) A person shall not use a vessel to take, possess, or land Dungeness crab for commercial purposes using Dungeness crab traps authorized pursuant to Section 9011, unless the owner of that vessel has a Dungeness crab vessel permit for that vessel that has not been suspended or revoked.SEC. 10.
Section 8280.2 of the Fish and Game Code is amended to read:8280.2.
(a) The owner of a Dungeness crab vessel, for purposes of this section, may include a person with a bona fide contract for the purchase of a vessel who otherwise meets all other qualifications for a Dungeness crab vessel permit. If a contract is found to be fraudulent or written or entered into for the purposes of circumventing qualification criteria for the issuance of a permit, the applicant shall be permanently ineligible for a Dungeness crab vessel permit.SEC. 11.
Section 8280.3 of the Fish and Game Code is amended to read:8280.3.
(a) For purposes of this section, the term “length overall” means the horizontal distance between the forward-most and after-most points on the hull of a vessel. The length overall of a vessel does not include attachments fixed to the stern and bow.SEC. 12.
Section 8280.4 of the Fish and Game Code is amended to read:8280.4.
(a) The commission may revoke the commercial fishing license issued pursuant to Section 7852 of any person owning a fishing vessel engaging in the taking or landing of Dungeness crab by traps for which that person has not obtained a Dungeness crab vessel permit, and the commission may revoke the registration, issued pursuant to Section 7881, for that vessel.SEC. 13.
Section 8280.5 of the Fish and Game Code is repealed.SEC. 14.
Section 8280.6 of the Fish and Game Code is amended to read:8280.6.
(a) The department shall charge a fee for each Dungeness crab vessel permit of two hundred dollars ($200) for a resident of California and four hundred dollars ($400) for a nonresident of California, for the reasonable regulatory costs of the department.(a)Notwithstanding Section 9002, the department, in consultation with the Dungeness crab task force, shall develop regulations as necessary to provide for the retrieval of lost or abandoned commercial crab traps.
(b)(1)As part of the regulations adopted pursuant to subdivision (a), the department shall establish a retrieval permit program that facilitates the removal of lost or abandoned crab gear in an efficient and cost-effective manner consistent with all of the following:
(A)The department shall establish a retrieval permit that grants a person who obtains a retrieval permit the authority to
retrieve during the closed season of the Dungeness crab commercial fishery lost or abandoned Dungeness crab traps belonging to another person and to receive compensation for that retrieval on a per trap basis from the revenue generated by the fee established pursuant to subparagraph (B).
(B)The department shall establish a fee to be charged to a Dungeness crab vessel permitholder for each trap belonging to the permitholder that is retrieved through the program. The department shall set the fee at a level sufficient to cover the reasonable regulatory costs associated with the program and to provide reasonable compensation to a retrieval permitholder on a per trap basis. The reasonable regulatory costs associated with the program include, but are not limited to, administrative costs, storage costs, and costs associated with disposing
unusable traps or traps whose owner cannot be identified.
(C)The department may use entities in addition to the department, including, but not limited to, nongovernmental organizations, to help implement the program. Upon renewal of a Dungeness crab vessel permit, the department shall notify the permitholder that the department, to support local retrieval efforts, may disclose the permitholder’s contact, license, and permit information to an entity used by the department to help implement the program. Upon notification of the permitholder, the department may disclose this information to the entity, subject to the entity’s agreement that the information will be kept confidential and will only be used to identify and contact the owners of recovered crab gear.
(D)A
Dungeness crab trap shall not be returned to the owner of the trap until the owner has paid the fee established pursuant to subparagraph (B).
(E)The department shall not renew a Dungeness crab vessel permit until any fee imposed pursuant to subparagraph (B) has been paid.
(2)The department may adopt additional requirements necessary to implement the program described in this subdivision.
(3)The department shall submit the proposed program developed pursuant to this subdivision to the Dungeness crab task force for review, and shall not implement the program until the task force has had 60 days or more to review the proposed program and recommend any proposed changes. The director may implement the program earlier
than 60 days after it is submitted to the Dungeness crab task force for review, if recommended by the task force.
(c)This section shall become inoperative on April 1,
2029, and, as of January 1, 2030, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that becomes operative on or before January 1, 2030, deletes or extends the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.