§ 9-137. Definitions

The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this division, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

Bay quahog (quahog) means Mercenaria mercenaria.

Bay scallop means Argopecten irradians.

Black sea bass means Centropristes striatus.

Blue crab means Callinectes sapidus.

Blue fish means Pomatomus saltarix.

Blue mussel means Mytilus edulis.

Bullrake means any curved metal instrument or basket with four or more tines (teeth) which is customarily used to harvest bay quahogs.

Bushel means a standard U.S. bushel, 2,150.4 cubic inches capacity.

Charter boat and party boat mean any vessel that carries passengers for hire to engage in fishing.

Cod means Gadus morhua.

Commerce means the transfer of finfish, mollusks, or crustaceans transferred to a dealer, or offered for sale, barter, trade, shipment on consignment, or packed for shipment.

Commercial shellfish license means a license duly issued by the town and the state authorizing an individual to harvest or take shellfish from the Great Salt Pond to be offered for sale.

Conch means a channeled whelk, Busycotypus canaliculatum, or a knobbed whelk, Busycon caria.

Dealer means a person who is licensed by the state to sell, purchase, barter and/or trade seafood.

Eel means Anguilla rostrata.

Fluke (summer flounder) means Paralichthys dentatus.

Fork length means the straight linear distance from the tip of the snout to the fork of the tail.

Fyke net means a conical shaped net supported by hoops, which also utilizes a leader to direct fish to the net.

Golden means any person 65 years of age or older.

Great Salt Pond (GSP) means all harbor waters enclosed within the bounds of a straight line across the northerly extension of the New Harbor breakwaters, and based upon the physical configuration of the harbor in 1989.

Green crab means Carcinus maenas.

Hinge width means the distance between the convex apex of the right shell and the convex apex of the left shell.

Jonah/northern crab means Cancer borealis.

Land and landing mean to enter port with fish on board, to begin offloading the fish, or to offload fish.

Lobster means Homarus americanus.

Mechanical power means any source of energy or power other than exclusively human power.

Menhaden means Brevoortia tyrannus.

Netting means a meshed fabric which exceeds eight feet in length or width including, but not limited to seines, weirs, fyke nets, otter trawls, and gill nets.

Noncommercial shellfish license means a license duly issued by the town authorizing an individual to harvest or take shellfish from the Great Salt Pond. Shellfish taken under this license cannot be offered for sale or trade. Noncommercial shellfish licenses include taxpayer and/or resident, seasonal (summer) and golden licenses.

Ocean quahog means Arctica islandica.

Offloading means to begin to remove, to remove, to pass over the rail, or otherwise take away fish from any vessel.

Oyster means Crassosterea virginica, Oystrea edulis.

Peck means one-fourth of a bushel.

Person means an individual, corporation, partnership, or other legal entity.

Pollock means Pollachius virens.

Possession means the exercise of dominion or control over the resource commencing at the time at which a decision is made not to return the resource to the immediate vicinity from which it was taken. Such a decision must be made at the first practical opportunity.

Quart means 1/32 of a bushel.

Resident.

(1) For purposes of this division and all licenses, permits and regulations issued by the town, a resident is defined as one who resides fulltime in the town.

(2) Fulltime Block Island residency status is not affected by absence due to enrollment at an educational institution or fulfilling a military obligation providing that the resident is also a registered Block Island voter.

(3) Fulltime Block Island residency status is not affected by absence, whatever the reason, of up to three months in any calendar year providing that the resident is also a registered Block Island voter.

(4) The town council may, for cause shown, waive the fulltime residency requirements for such reasons, including but not limited to family obligations, illness or unusual work circumstances upon appeal within 30 days from a decision of any board, commission or licensing authority.

Rock crab means Cancer irroratus.

Scup means Stenotomus chrysops.

Sea scallops means Placopecten magellanicus.

Seine means any net used to catch fish by encirclement or herding, including haul seines, beach seines, and purse seines; haul seines may not exceed 600 feet in length.

Shellfish, finfish and crab means all species of mollusk and crustacea, including and without limitation, oysters, clams, soft-shell clams, sea clams, scallops, mussels, quahogs, crabs either blue, sand or rock, and flounder both winter and summer, and all other finfish naturally found in the Great Salt Pond.

Soft-shell clam means Mya arenaria.

Striped bass means Morone saxatilis.

Surf clam or sea clam means Spisula solidissima.

Take and taking mean the process and each of the activities in that process undertaken to remove the resource from its natural habitat until the time at which possession begins.

Tautog means Tautoga onitis.

Tongs means any shellfishing implement constructed with heads attached to stales (handles) and pinned at a pivot point to allow the opening and closing of the basket mouth formed by the two.

Transfer means to convey, pass, or remove something from one person, place, and/or vessel to another.

Trawl device means any type of fishing apparatus drawn behind a vessel which consists of otter doors and/or ground cables, ropes, and/or netting. This will apply to, but not be limited to, beam trawls, otter trawls, Scottish trawls, and pair trawls.

Trip limit (possession limit) means the maximum quantity of marine products/species that may be possessed by a vessel; vessels are only allowed one trip limit in possession.

Vessel means every description of watercraft, other than a seaplane on the water, used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on water.

Wet storage means the temporary storage, by a dealer, of shellfish from areas in approved classification or in open status of the conditionally approved classification, in containers or floats in natural bodies of water or tanks containing natural or synthetic seawater. Wet storage shall be practiced only by a licensed shellfish dealer in strict compliance with the provisions in the written approval for the wet storage given by the state department of health.

Winter flounder means Pseudopleuronetes americanus (common name: black flounder flatfish).

Witch flounder (gray sole) means Glyptocephalus cynoglossus.

Yellowtail flounder means Limanda ferruginea.

(Rev. Ords. 1989, § 9-136; Ord. of 2-16-2000, § 9-136; Ord. of 3-7-2011, § 9-136)

refcross

Definitions and rules of construction generally, § 1-2.