§ 113-182.  Regulation of fishing and fisheries.

(a) The Marine Fisheries Commission is authorized to authorize, license, regulate, prohibit, prescribe, or restrict all forms of marine and estuarine resources in coastal fishing waters with respect to:

(1) Time, place, character, or dimensions of any methods or equipment that may be employed in taking fish;

(2) Seasons for taking fish;

(3) Size limits on and maximum quantities of fish that may be taken, possessed, bailed to another, transported, bought, sold, or given away.

(b) The Marine Fisheries Commission is authorized to authorize, regulate, prohibit, prescribe, or restrict and the Department is authorized to license:

(1) The opening and closing of coastal fishing waters, except as to inland game fish, whether entirely or only as to the taking of particular classes of fish, use of particular equipment, or as to other activities within the jurisdiction of the Department; and

(2) The possession, cultivation, transportation, importation, exportation, sale, purchase, acquisition, and disposition of all marine and estuarine resources and all related equipment, implements, vessels, and conveyances as necessary to implement the work of the Department in carrying out its duties.

(3) The possession, transportation, importation, exportation, sale, purchase, acquisition, and disposition of all fish taken in the Atlantic Ocean out to a distance of 200 miles from the State's mean low watermark, consistent with the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1801, et seq., as amended. (1915, c. 84, s. 21; 1917, c. 290, s. 7; C.S., s. 1878; 1925, c. 168, s. 2; 1935, c. 35; 1945, c. 776; 1953, cc. 774, 1251; 1961, c. 1189, s. 1; 1963, c. 1097, s. 1; 1965, c. 957, s. 2; 1973, c. 1262, s. 28; 1995, c. 507, s. 26.5(c); 1997-400, s. 6.6.)