AB 2369: Fishing: marine protected areas: violations.

(1)The Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) establishes the Marine Life Protection Program to reexamine and redesign Californias marine protected area system. Existing law requires the Department of Fish and Wildlife to prepare, and the Fish and Game Commission to adopt, a master plan that guides the adoption and implementation of the program. Under the MLPA, the commission is authorized to regulate commercial and recreational fishing and any other taking of marine species in marine protected areas, but the taking of a marine species in a marine life reserve, a type of marine protected area, is prohibited for any purpose, including recreational and commercial fishing, except as authorized by the commission for scientific purposes.

Existing law generally makes any violation of the Fish and Game Code or any rule, regulation, or order made or adopted under the code a misdemeanor. Existing law makes a violation of a specified regulation relating to marine protected areas, marine managed areas, and special closures an infraction or a misdemeanor, except under certain circumstances, including if the person who violates the regulation holds a commercial fishing license or a commercial passenger fishing boat license. Existing law generally provides that the punishment for a violation of the Fish and Game Code that is a misdemeanor is a fine of not more than $1,000, or imprisonment in a county jail for not more than 6 months, or by both that fine and imprisonment.

This bill would expand the applicability of a misdemeanor for a violation of this regulation from a person who holds a commercial passenger fishing boat license to a person who is operating a boat or vessel licensed as a commercial passenger fishing boat at the time of the violation. By expanding the scope of a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

Existing law provides that any person who illegally takes, possesses, imports, exports, sells, purchases, barters, trades, or exchanges a bird, fish, mammal, reptile, or amphibian, or part of any of those animals, for profit or personal gain, is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than $5,000 nor more than $40,000, or imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one year, or by both that fine and imprisonment. Existing law increases the fine for a 2nd or subsequent violation. Existing law exempts fish taken pursuant to a commercial fishing license from this provision.

Existing law generally requires that prosecution for an offense not punishable by death, imprisonment in the state prison, or specified felonies punishable by imprisonment in a county jail, be commenced within one year after commission of the offense, except as specified.

This bill would establish a separate penalty for a person who holds a commercial fishing license, or is operating a boat or vessel licensed as a commercial passenger fishing boat, and, for commercial purposes, either unlawfully takes a fish within a marine protected area, or engages in, or knowingly facilitates another persons, fishing activity within the marine protected area. This penalty would be equivalent to the penalties established for the above-described poaching provision. The bill would also authorize the department to suspend a persons commercial fishing license or commercial passenger fishing boat license, as applicable, or other privilege issued pursuant to the Fish and Game Code, if the person is convicted of a 2nd or subsequent violation that is punishable pursuant to this provision, after having been convicted of a previous violation that is punishable pursuant to this provision that occurred within the previous 10 years. The bill would authorize a suspension to be appealed to the commission. The bill would require prosecution of an offense punishable under this provision to be commenced within 3 years after the commission of the offense. By changing the penalty for this crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

(2)Existing law applies various conditions to each commercial fishing license, permit, or other entitlement issued to take, possess aboard a boat, or land fish for commercial purposes and to each commercial boat registration issued by the Department of Fish and Wildlife, including a condition that those entitlements are not transferable unless expressly authorized. Existing law authorizes, subject to specified requirements, the transfer of various types of permits to take certain species of fish for commercial purposes upon application to the department.

This bill would require an application to transfer any permit or other entitlement to take fish for commercial purposes to be deferred if the current holder of the permit or other entitlement is awaiting final resolution of any pending criminal, civil, or administrative action that could affect the status of the permit or other entitlement.

(3)The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.