Louisiana Administrative Code
Title 76 - WILDLIFE AND FISHERIES
Part VII - Fish and Other Aquatic Life
Chapter 3 - Saltwater Sport and Commercial Fishery
Section VII-371 - Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) Requirements
Universal Citation: LA Admin Code VII-371
Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 9, September 20, 2024
A. The following provision regarding VMS shall be applicable to all provisions of law requiring the use of VMS except where required by R.S. 56:433.1 and LAC 76:VII.525.
1. The vessel must have onboard a fully
operational and approved VMS Device. Approved devices are those devices
approved by NOAA Fisheries Service or the secretary of the Louisiana Department
of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) for fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish
fishery and which meet the minimum performance criteria specified in Paragraph
2 of this Subsection. In the event that a VMS device is removed from the list
of approved devices, vessel owners who installed an approved VMS prior to
approval of any revised list will be considered in compliance with requirements
of this Paragraph, unless otherwise notified by the LDWF.
2. Minimum VMS Performance Criteria. Basic
required features of the VMS are as follows.
a. The VMS shall be satellite-based and
tamper proof, i.e., shall not permit the input of false positions; furthermore,
satellite selection must be automatic to provide an optimal fix and shall not
be capable of being manually overridden.
b. The VMS shall be fully automatic and
operational at all times, regardless of weather and environmental
conditions.
c. The VMS shall be
fully operable and capable of tracking the vessel in all of Louisiana coastal
waters and throughout the Gulf of Mexico.
d. The VMS shall be capable of transmitting
and storing information including vessel identification, date, time and
latitude/longitude.
e. The VMS unit
shall make all required transmissions to a designated and approved VMS vendor
who shall be responsible for monitoring the vessel and reporting information to
the LDWF.
f. The VMS shall provide
accurate position transmissions every half-hour, except for those vessels
operating solely under the out-of-state landing permit mentioned in Paragraph 3
that require accurate position transmissions every hour, every day of the year,
during required monitoring period. In addition, the VMS shall allow polling of
individual vessels or any set of vessels at any time and permit those
monitoring the vessel to receive position reports in real time. For the
purposes of this specification, real time shall constitute data that reflect a
delay of 15 minutes or less between the displayed information and the vessel's
actual position.
g. The VMS vendor
shall be capable of transmitting position data to a LDWF designated computer
system via a modem at a minimum speed of 9600 baud. Transmission shall be in a
file format acceptable to the LDWF. Such transmission must be made at any time
upon demand of the LDWF.
h. The VMS
vendor shall be capable of archiving vessel position histories for a minimum of
three months, as transmitted by the VMS unit, and provide transmissions to the
LDWF of specified portions of archived data in response to LDWF requests in a
variety of media (tape, compact disc, etc.) as specified by the LDWF.
3. Operating Requirements. Except
as provided in Paragraph 4 (power down exemption) of this Subsection, or unless
otherwise required by law, all required VMS units must transmit a signal
indicating the vessel's accurate position at least every half hour, 24 hours a
day, throughout the year. However, those vessels operating solely under the
out-of-state landing permit shall transmit a signal indicating the vessel's
accurate position at least every hour, 24 hours a day throughout the
year.
4. Power Down Exemption. Any
vessel required to have on board a fully operational VMS unit at all times, as
specified in Paragraph 3 of this Subsection, is exempt from this requirement
provided:
a. the vessel will be continuously
out of the water for more than 72 consecutive hours; and
b. a valid letter of exemption obtained
pursuant to Subparagraph 5.a of the Subsection has been issued to the vessel
and is on board the vessel is in compliance with all conditions and
requirements of said letter.
5. Letter of Exemption
a. Application. A vessel owner may apply for
a letter of exemption from the operating requirements specified in Paragraph 3
of this Subsection for his/her vessel by sending a written request to the LDWF
and providing the following: Sufficient information to determine that the
vessel will be out of the water for more than 72 continuous hours; the location
of the vessel during the time an exemption is sought; and the exact time period
for which an exemption is needed (i.e., the time the VMS will be turned off and
turned on again).
b. Issuance. Upon
receipt of an application, the LDWF may issue a letter of exemption to the
vessel if it is determined that the vessel owner provided sufficient
information as required under Subparagraph 5.a of this Subsection and that the
issuance of the letter of exemption will not jeopardize accurate monitoring of
the vessel's position. Upon written request, the LDWF may change the time
period for which the exemption was granted.
6. Presumption. If a VMS unit fails to
transmit the required signal of a vessel's position, the vessel shall be deemed
to have incurred a VMS violation, for as long as the unit fails to transmit a
signal, unless a preponderance of evidence shows that the failure to transmit
was due to an unavoidable malfunction, or disruption of the transmission that
occurred while the vessel was declared out of the fishery, as applicable, or
was not at sea.
7. Replacement.
Should a VMS unit require replacement, a vessel owner must submit documentation
to the LDWF Law Enforcement Division Headquarters VMS coordinator, within 3
days of installation and prior to the vessel's next trip, verifying that the
new VMS unit is an operational, approved system as described in this
Section.
8. Access. All vessel
owners shall allow the LDWF, and their authorized wildlife enforcement agents
or designees access to the vessel's VMS unit and data, if applicable, and
location data obtained from its VMS unit, if required, at the time of or after
its transmission to the vendor or receiver, as the case may be.
9. Tampering. Tampering with a VMS, a VMS
unit, or a VMS signal, is prohibited. Tampering includes any activity that is
likely to affect the unit's ability to operate properly, signal, or accuracy
compute the vessel's position fix.
10. Violation. Failure to abide by any
regulation set forth regarding the use or operation of VMS, or failure to have
VMS when required shall be a violation of the Louisiana Revised Statutes which
mandates VMS and requirements of probation where applicable. All fish taken or
possessed by a person in violation of these rules, and who is identified on his
commercial license or permit as required to be VMS monitored, shall be deemed
illegally taken and possessed. The provisions of this Section do not exempt any
person from any other laws, rules, regulation, and license requirements for
this or other jurisdictions. Violations of this Section shall constitute a
violation of the Section of law requiring the use of VMS.
11. All costs and monthly fees associated
with the installation, operation and monitoring of any VMS system in accordance
with these rules shall be the responsibility of the person required to be
monitored and shall be paid by him directly to the approved VMS supplier and
monitoring facilitator.
AUTHORITY NOTE: Promulgated in accordance with R.S. 56:424, R.S. 56:424.1, R.S. 56:495.1, R.S. 56:497.1, and R.S. 56:433.1.
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