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Virginia Administrative Code
Title 4. Conservation And Natural Resources
Agency 20. Marine Resources Commission
Chapter 1360. Pertaining to Commercial Electrofishing
3/25/2025

4VAC20-1360-20. Definitions.

The following words and terms when used in this chapter shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

"Agent" means any individual who possesses the Commercial Fisherman Registration License, fishing gear license, or fishing permit of any registered commercial fisherman in order to fish that commercial fisherman's gear or sell that commercial fisherman's harvest.

"Blue catfish" means any fish of the nonnative species Ictalurus furcatus.

"Commercial electrofishing fishery" means low-frequency electrofishing and subsequent harvest by any individual where the harvest is for sale, barter, trade, or any commercial purpose or is intended for sale, barter, trade, or any commercial purpose.

"Electrofishing" means a method by which fish are immobilized by an electrical field created by pulsing direct current at a frequency not above 15 Hz.

"Fixed fishing device" means any fishing device requiring the use of more than two poles or stakes that have been pushed or pumped into the bottom, to include only fyke nets, pound nets, staked gill nets, and crab traps.

"Flathead catfish" means any fish of the nonnative species Pylodictis olivaris.

"Harvest area" means the waters of (i) the mainstem of the James River, from the James River Bridge upstream to the southern point of Turkey Island; (ii) the mainstem of the Pamunkey River, from the Route 33 Eltham Bridge upstream to the mouth of Matadequin Creek; and (iii) the mainstem of the Rappahannock River, from the Route 360 Downing Bridge upstream to the Route 301 James Madison Memorial Bridge.

"Pier" means any noncommercial or commercial open pile or floating structure extending from the uplands channelward of mean low water.

"Snout" means the most forward projection from a fish's head that includes the upper and lower jaw.

"Total length" means the length of a fish measured from the most forward projection of the snout, with the mouth closed, to the tip of the longer lobe of the tail (caudal) fin, measured with the tail compressed along the midline, using a straight-line measure, not measured over the curve of the body.

Statutory Authority

§ 28.2-201 of the Code of Virginia.

Historical Notes

Derived from Virginia Register Volume 36, Issue 10, eff. January 1, 2020; amended, Virginia Register Volume 41, Issue 16, eff. March 1, 2025.

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