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Virginia Administrative Code
Title 4. Conservation And Natural Resources
Agency 15. Department of Wildlife Resources
Chapter 340. Fish: Seines and Nets
11/21/2024

4VAC15-340-70. Eel pots for taking American eels for personal use.

A. The director may issue, deny, modify, suspend, or revoke annual eel pot permits for American eels designated for personal use. Such permits shall authorize the taking of American eels for personal use only (not for sale) with eel pots from waters designated in this section. Such permits shall be valid so long as the harvest of eels in the Commonwealth is not prohibited by other state or federal law or regulation.

B. It shall be unlawful for a permit holder to possess elvers.

C. It shall be unlawful for permit holders fishing eel pots to take any species other than American eels.

D. It shall be unlawful to place, set, or fish any eel pot that has a mesh less than 1/2-inch by 1/2-inch and does not contain at least one unrestricted 4-inch by 4-inch escape panel of 1/2-inch by 1-inch mesh. Buoys of all pots set must be marked by permanent means with the permit holder's name, address, and phone number.

E. American eels may be taken with eel pots in Back Bay and its natural tributaries (not including Lake Tecumseh and Red Wing Lake) and North Landing River and its natural tributaries from the North Carolina line to the Great Bridge locks.

F. It shall be unlawful for any permit holder to possess more than 25 eels daily. When fishing from a boat or vessel where the entire catch is held in a common hold or container, the daily possession limit shall be for the boat or vessel and shall be equal to the number of permit holders on board multiplied by 25. The captain or operator of the boat or vessel shall be responsible for any boat or vessel possession limit. Any eel taken after the daily possession limit has been reached shall be returned to the water immediately. Possession of any quantity of eels that exceeds the daily possession limit described in this subsection shall be presumed to be for commercial purposes.

G. For the purposes of this section, the term "elver" shall mean any American eel of less than nine inches in total length.

Statutory Authority

§§ 29.1-103, 29.1-501, and 29.1-502 of the Code of Virginia.

Historical Notes

Derived from Virginia Register Volume 29, Issue 25, eff. August 15, 2013; amended, Virginia Register Volume 33, Issue 10, eff. January 1, 2017.

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