Article 9. Limited Entry Fisheries of California Fish And Game Code >> Division 6. >> Part 3. >> Chapter 1. >> Article 9.

"Limited entry fishery" means a fishery in which the number of persons who may participate or the number of vessels that may be used in taking a specified species of fish is limited by statute or regulation.

(a) Any licensed fisherman shall be eligible for inclusion during the initial year of a limited entry fishery which is established by statute that becomes operative after January 1, 1982, or by regulation that becomes operative after January 1, 1999, regardless of the prescribed conditions for entry into the fishery, if the fisherman presents to the department satisfactory evidence that he or she has been licensed as a California commercial fisherman for at least 20 years and has participated in the fishery for at least one of those 20 years, with qualifying participation in the fishery to be determined by the commission based on landings or other appropriate criteria.
  (b) Fishermen who have established eligibility to participate in a limited entry fishery under this section are subject to conditions of continuing eligibility established by statute or regulation if those fishermen desire to maintain their eligibility.

(a) The Legislature finds and declares that, in some limited entry fisheries, two or more partners may be operating with one of the partners holding the permit to participate in the fishery. The Legislature further finds and declares that undocumented, de facto, family partnerships are a longstanding custom in these fisheries. The Legislature further finds and declares that great hardship results when the permittee partner is no longer able to continue working and leaves the other partner without a permit to continue participating in the fishery.
  (b) In any limited entry fishery in which permits are allocated to participants in the fishery, and where the death, incapacity, or retirement of a permittee from that fishery would deprive a working partner of the permittee of the ability to continue to derive a livelihood from that fishery, a permit shall be issued, upon application, to one remaining partner.
  (c) A working partner for the purposes of this section shall be a spouse, child (including an adopted child), or sibling of the permittee, whose investment or equity need not be proven by documentation, or a person who can prove an investment or equity in the vessel or gear used in the fishery, and who would otherwise have been eligible for a permit and did not obtain one because he or she was working with or was a partner with the permittee.
  (d) The working partner shall also provide substantial evidence of an actual physical working participation aboard the vessel supported by the submission of documents filed with the Franchise Tax Board and supported by trip settlement sheets or similar documents that demonstrate earnings from that participation. "Trip settlement sheet" means a document prepared after a vessel has completed a fishing trip which displays the costs incurred, revenues received, and profits paid out. Investment or equity alone does not establish that the person is a working partner.
  (e) Those existing working partners other than the family relationships specified in subdivision (c) may, not later than February 1, 1984, declare and prove the working partnership in a manner satisfactory to the department and request that the department state the fact of the working partnership upon the permit. Thereafter, a nonfamily working partnership shall be declared, proved, and noted upon any limited entry permit at the first issuance of the permit.
  (f) This article does not apply to permits to take herring for roe in California.

(a) The Legislature finds and declares as follows:
  (1) The accidental death of a limited entry permittee results in great hardships on the permittee's family.
  (2) Under the law as it existed immediately prior to January 1, 1987, if a member of the permittee's family has not been actively working in the fishery, the limited entry permit could not be transferred to a member of the family, an action which deprives the family of the opportunity to continue to derive a livelihood from the fishery and which imposes greater hardships.
  (3) When there is an accidental death of a limited entry permittee, a transition period is necessary to allow a family member to join the fishery and to become acclimated, knowledgeable, and experienced in the fishery.
  (b) Notwithstanding Section 8102, the department shall transfer a permit for a limited entry fishery, upon application, to a parent, spouse, child, or sibling of a permittee whose death was the result of an accident which occurred after January 1, 1986.
  (c) Application for the transfer of a permit pursuant to subdivision (b) shall be made on or before January 1, 1987, or not more than one year after the death of the permittee, whichever is later.
  (d) The director may authorize another person, when requested by the new permittee, to serve in the place of the new permittee and to engage in fishing activities under the authority of the limited entry permit for not more than two years from the date of the permit transfer.
  (e) "Accidental death" means death resulting directly and solely from any of the following:
  (1) An accidental injury visible on the surface of the body or disclosed by an autopsy, sustained solely by external, violent, and accidental means.
  (2) A disease or infection resulting directly from an accidental injury and beginning within 30 days after the date of the injury.
  (3) An accidental drowning.

Upon the death of a limited entry permittee, the permit shall vest in the permittee's estate or in the surviving community estate and may be transferred by the executor, administrator, personal representative, or surviving spouse to a qualified pointholder pursuant to Section 8552.2 or to a partner qualified pursuant to Section 8552.6. This transfer shall be initiated by notice to the department, in writing, sent by certified mail, within one year of the date of death. If no transfer is initiated within one year of the date of death, the permit shall revert to the department for disposition pursuant to Section 8552.4 and shall be thereafter treated as a herring permit that has not been renewed. The department may, upon written application, grant an extension of time up to one additional year for the transfer to be initiated.