Pacific Fishery Regulations, 1993 (SOR/93-54)

Joined Nets

4 For the purposes of these Regulations, where two or more nets are joined together, they shall be considered to be one net.

PART IGeneral Provisions

Import of Fish

5 No person shall bring into the Province any live fish of a species set out in Schedule VIII.

Prohibited Fishing Methods

6 No person shall

• (a) fish by snagging or with snares.

• (b) [Repealed, SOR/99-296, s. 2]

Prohibition Against Molesting or Injuring Fish

7 Subject to these Regulations, no person shall molest or injure fish.

Lights Prohibited

• 8 (1) No person shall use torches or artificial lights to attract or repel fish unless they are fishing for shrimp with a trawl net or for squid.

• (2) No person shall use fishing gear that has a flashing light attached to it.

Gill Net Restrictions

9 No person shall, in tidal waters,

• (a) fish with more than one gill net at one time; or

• (b) except where fishing for herring, fish with a gill net that has any part of the corkline under the surface of the water.

Dip Net Restrictions

10 No person shall fish with a dip net

• (a) the area of the mouth of which exceeds 1 m²; or

• (b) the depth of which is greater than 1.5 m.

• 11 (1) and (2) [Repealed, SOR/94-731, s. 1]

• (3) [Repealed, SOR/99-296, s. 4]

12 [Repealed, SOR/99-296, s. 5]

Marking of Gear

• 13 (1) Except as otherwise provided as a condition of a licence issued under these Regulations, no person shall fish with a gill net unless it is marked in accordance with this section.

• (2) A buoy floating on the surface of the water shall be attached to each end of every gill net that is not attached to a vessel.

• (3) Where a gill net is used in commercial fishing for salmon,

  • (a) the buoys referred to in subsection (2) shall be orange in colour and at least 125 cm in circumference; and

  • (b) the end of the gill net that is not attached to a vessel shall be marked with a lantern that gives a steady white light during the period beginning one hour after sunset and ending one hour before sunrise.

• (4) Where a gill net is used in commercial fishing for roe herring,

  • (a) the buoys referred to in subsection (2) shall be at least 125 cm in circumference; and

  • (b) all buoys that are attached to the gill net shall be of the same colour.

  • (c) [Repealed, SOR/2013-37, s. 6]

14 Except as otherwise provided as a condition of a licence issued under these Regulations, no person shall fish with a longline unless it has attached to each end a buoy floating on the surface of the water.

• 15 (1) Subject to subsection (2) and except as otherwise provided as a condition of a licence issued under these Regulations, no person shall fish for commercial purposes with traps or ring nets unless a buoy floating on the surface of the water is attached to

  • (a) each end of every line of traps or ring nets; and

  • (b) each trap or ring net that is not part of a line of traps or ring nets.

• (2) Subsection (1) does not apply to a person who is fishing for shellfish in Subarea 29-3, 29-4, 29-6, 29-7, 29-9 or 29-10 during any period in which fishing for salmon with a net is authorized in that Subarea.

16 The Minister may specify a licence condition referred to in subsection 13(1), section 14 or subsection 15(1) only if the purpose of the condition is to mitigate marine mammal entanglement.

Off-Loading and Reporting of Salmon and Roe Herring Catches

• 17 (1) Subject to subsections (2) and 18(5), where salmon or roe herring has been caught by commercial fishing, no person shall off-load that salmon or roe herring at any place other than

  • (a) a licensed facility;

  • (b) a registered vessel; or

  • (c) a vehicle whose operator holds a licence that is issued under the British Columbia Fish and Seafood Act, SBC 2015, c. 14, as amended from time to time, and that authorizes the holder to receive commercially caught fish.

• (2) Subsection (1) does not apply to a person who catches salmon or roe herring and sells it directly to an individual in Canada for the purpose of consumption by that individual.

• (3) An operator of a vehicle referred to in paragraph (1)(c) shall not off-load any salmon or roe herring received from a registered vessel at any place other than a licensed facility.

• (4) The operator of a licensed facility at which salmon or roe herring is off-loaded shall

  • (a) provide information respecting each off-loading by completing the form supplied by the Minister for that purpose;

  • (b) mail a copy of the completed form within seven days after the date of the off-loading to the Statistics Unit of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans at 200-401 Burrard Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6C 3S4;

  • (c) keep a copy of the completed form for two years after the date of the off-loading; and

  • (d) provide a copy of the completed form to a representative of the Department when requested to do so.

• 18 (1) For the purposes of this section,

  export zone

  export zone means any of the following zones:

  • (a) the Central Zone, which comprises Areas 6 to 10, 106 to 110 and 130,

  • (b) the North Zone, which comprises Areas 1 to 5, 101 to 105 and 142, and

  • (c) the South Zone, which comprises Areas 11 to 29, 111 and 121 to 127; (zone d’exportation)

  monthly allowable catch

  monthly allowable catch means the total weight of salmon from an export zone that may be caught and retained in a calendar month; (prises mensuelles admissibles)

  total allowable catch

  total allowable catch means the total weight of salmon or roe herring, as the case may be, from an export zone that may be caught and retained in a calendar year. (total des prises admissibles)

• (2) The Regional Director-General may determine the monthly allowable catch for an export zone and shall give notice of the monthly allowable catch, prior to the commencement of any salmon fishery in any calendar month, to the owner or operator of each vessel in respect of which a licence has been issued under subsection (4).

• (3) The Regional Director-General may determine the total allowable catch for an export zone and shall give notice of the total allowable catch, prior to the commencement of any salmon or roe herring fishery in any calendar year, to the owner or operator of each vessel in respect of which a licence has been issued under subsection (4).

• (4) The Minister may issue, in respect of a vessel, a licence to off-load salmon or roe herring in the United States where

  • (a) a Category D licence has been issued in respect of that vessel;

  • (b) the vessel is suitably equipped to permit the weighing, counting and biological sampling of the salmon or roe herring that is taken on board the vessel; and

  • (c) the vessel has suitable accommodations for carrying representatives of the Department.

• (5) The operator of a vessel in respect of which a licence has been issued under subsection (4) may off-load salmon or roe herring from the vessel in the United States if the salmon or roe herring was taken on board the vessel while a representative of the Department was on board.

• (6) The Minister may specify in a licence issued under subsection (4) conditions respecting

  • (a) the export zone or zones in which salmon or roe herring may be taken on board for the purpose of off-loading in the United States; and

  • (b) the port or ports in each export zone at which representatives of the Department shall be embarked and disembarked.

• (7) No operator of a vessel in respect of which a licence has been issued under subsection (4) shall fail to comply with any condition set out in the licence.

• (8) No operator of a vessel in respect of which a licence has been issued under subsection (4) shall, during any calendar month, take on board salmon in an export zone for the purpose of off-loading in the United States after notification has been given to the operator by a representative of the Department that the total weight of salmon from that export zone taken on board vessels in that month for off-loading in the United States has reached 25 per cent of the monthly allowable catch for that export zone in the preceding calendar month, minus the weight of salmon exported from that export zone in the preceding calendar month under the authority of all licences issued under subsection (4), plus the greater of

  • (a) 25 per cent of the monthly allowable catch for that export zone in the calender month in respect of which the calculation is being made, and

  • (b) the percentage, calculated for that calendar year pursuant to subsection (10), of the monthly allowable catch for that export zone in the calendar month in respect of which the calculation is being made.

• (9) No operator of a vessel in respect of which a licence has been issued under subsection (4) shall, during any calendar year, take on board roe herring in an export zone for the purpose of off-loading in the United States after notification has been given to the operator by a representative of the Department that the total weight of roe herring from that export zone taken on board vessels for off-loading in the United States has reached the greater of

  • (a) 25 per cent of the total allowable catch for that export zone in that calendar year, and

  • (b) the percentage, calculated for that calendar year pursuant to subsection (10), of the total allowable catch for that export zone in that year.

• (10) For the purpose of subsections (8) and (9), the percentage for a calendar year is calculated using the following formula:

  (100X ) ÷ Y

  where

  X

  is the average annual total weight of salmon or roe herring, as the case may be, that was caught in United States fishery waters and exported by sea from the United States to Canada without having being processed or landed in the United States during the four calendar years immediately preceding that year; and

  Y

  is the aggregate of the total allowable catches of salmon or roe herring, as the case may be, for all export zones in that year.

• (11) A representative of the Department who is on board a vessel in respect of which a licence has been issued under subsection (4) while salmon or roe herring is being taken on board for export to the United States shall, prior to disembarking the vessel, seal all of the vessel’s fish holds.

• (12) No person other than a fishery officer shall tamper with or remove a seal that has been placed on a fish hold pursuant to subsection (11).

• (13) A licence issued under subsection (4) shall expire on December 31 of the year for which it was issued.