Hawaii Administrative Rules
Title 13 - DEPARTMENT OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES
Subtitle 4 - FISHERIES
Part II - MARINE FISHERIES MANAGEMENT AREAS
Chapter 60.4 - WEST HAWAI'I REGIONAL FISHERY MANAGEMENT AREA, HAWAI'I
Section 13-60.4-3 - Definitions

As used in this chapter unless otherwise provided:

"Aquarium collecting gear" means any equipment or gear adapted, designed, or commonly used to collect, capture or maintain aquatic life alive in a state of captivity, including but not limited to hand nets, fence or barrier nets, fiberglass, plastic, wood or metal 'tickle sticks' (including spears or similar implements used to manipulate the movement of aquarium fish or animals), catch buckets, keeps, baskets or venting needles.

"Aquarium collecting vessel" means any motorized or non-motorized vessel used by any person to collect, ferry, or scout for aquarium fish or animals.

"Aquarium purposes" means to hold aquatic life alive in a state of captivity, whether as pets, for scientific study, for public exhibition, for public display, or for sale for these purposes. Aquatic life collected under a valid aquarium permit may not be used for human consumption, for bait, or for other consumptive purposes.

"Aquatic life" means any type or species of mammal, fish, amphibian, reptile, mollusk, crustacean, arthropod, invertebrate, coral, or other animal that inhabits the freshwater or marine environment and includes any part, product, egg, or offspring thereof; or freshwater or marine plants, including seeds, roots, products, and other parts thereof.

"Commercial purpose" means the taking of aquatic life for profit, gain, sale, purchase, barter, exchange, to offer for sale, or upon any offer to purchase.

"Department" means the department of land and natural resources.

"Deploy" means to place the specified gear in the water, in whole or in part.

"Fish feeding" means deliberately introducing into the water any food material, substance, or device used as an attractant, for any purpose except catching and removing marine life.

"Fishing gear" means any net, spear, rod, reel, hook-and-line, slurp gun, or any other equipment or gear adapted, designed, or commonly used to take or capture aquatic life.

"Hook-and-line" means a fishing line to which one or more hooks or other tackle are attached. A hook-and-line may include a fishing rod or reel or both to deploy and retrieve the line, and the use of a landing net to land hooked fish.

"Kona crab net" means a mesh net encircled by a rigid frame no more than three feet in length in any direction.

"Lay net" means a panel of net mesh that is suspended vertically in the water with the aid of a float line that supports the top edge of the net upward towards the water surface and a lead line that keeps the bottom edge of the net downward towards the ocean bottom.

"Lay net fishing" or to "lay net fish" means deploying or attempting to deploy a lay net in a set location and in an open configuration, and retrieving the lay net from the same location after a certain time period has passed. This fishing method is also known as set netting, cross netting, pa'ipa'i, and moemoe netting. This term does not apply to the use of a lay net to completely encircle a pre-identified school of fish, where the net is constantly attended at all times while in the water, such as in the practice of surround netting.

"Marine reserve" means an area where any and all extraction of reef-related marine life, either alive or dead, or any portion of the reef structure, including coral, rocks, plants, algae, sand, shells, or any feature of the natural reef, shall be prohibited, except as allowed in this chapter.

"Multi-panel lay net" means a lay net consisting of two or more layers of netting, usually of different mesh size. This gear is also known as a trammel net.

"Natural fibers" means fibers derived wholly from plant materials including, olona, linen, cotton, hemp, and sisal.

"SCUBA gear" means any equipment adapted, designed, or commonly used to enable a diver to breathe while underwater, including but not limited to SCUBA regulators, high pressure cylinders, rebreathers, SNUBA, and hookah rigs.

"SCUBA spearfishing" means to take or to attempt to take aquatic life through the combined use of a spear and SCUBA gear.

"Set" when used as a noun with respect to the use of lay nets, means a sequential act beginning from when the lay net is fully deployed in the water and ending on the next complete removal of the lay net from the water.

"Spear" means any device or implement which is designed or used for impaling marine life. Spears may include but are not limited to spear gun shafts, arbaletes, arrows, bolts, Hawaiian slings, tridents, or three-prong spears. A dive knife is not considered to be a spear.

"Speared" means pierced, impaled, penetrated, stuck, or run through by a sharp, pointed implement.

"Take" means to fish for, catch, or harvest, or to attempt to fish for, catch, or harvest, aquatic life. The use of any gear, equipment, tool, or any means to fish for, catch, capture, or harvest, or to attempt to fish for, catch, capture, or harvest, aquatic life by any person who is in the water, or in a vessel on the water, or in the shoreline area where aquatic life can be fished for, caught, or harvested, shall be construed as taking.

"Total length" means the length of a fish measured from the tip of the snout to the tip of the longer lobe of the caudal (tail) fin. The length measurement shall be a straight-line measure, not measured over the curvature of the body of the fish.

"White list" means a list of species of marine life that may be taken for aquarium purposes.

[Eff 12/26/13; am 7/29/16] (Auth: HRS §§ 187A-5, 188-53, 188F-6) (Imp: HRS §§ 187A-5, 188-53, 188F-6)

Am and comp 3/11/2023