(a) Except on the water body where taken, a person may not transport a live fish in a quantity of water sufficient to keep the fish alive, unless the fish:
(1) is being transported under an aquaculture license as authorized under sections 17.4985 and 17.4986;
(2) is being transported for a fishing contest weigh-in under section 97C.081;
(3) is a minnow being transported under section 97C.505 or 97C.515;
(4) is being transported by a commercial fishing license holder under section 97C.821; or
(5) is being transported as otherwise authorized in this section or as prescribed for certifiable diseases under sections 17.46 to 17.4999.
(b) The commissioner may adopt rules to allow and regulate:
(1) the transportation of fish and fish eggs; and
(2) the stocking of waters with fish or fish eggs.
(c) The commissioner must allow the possession of fish on special management or experimental waters to be prepared as a meal on the ice or on the shore of that water body if the fish:
(1) were lawfully taken;
(2) have been packaged by a licensed fish packer; and
(3) do not otherwise exceed the statewide possession limits.
(d) The commissioner shall prescribe rules designed to encourage local sporting organizations to propagate game fish by using rearing ponds. The rules must:
(1) prescribe methods to acquire brood stock for the ponds by seining public waters;
(2) allow the sporting organizations to own and use seines and other necessary equipment; and
(3) prescribe methods for stocking the fish in public waters that give priority to the needs of the community where the fish are reared and the desires of the organization operating the rearing pond.
(e) A person age 16 or under may, for purposes of display in a home aquarium, transport largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, yellow perch, rock bass, black crappie, white crappie, bluegill pumpkinseed, green sunfish, orange spotted sunfish, and black, yellow, and brown bullheads taken by angling, except as otherwise ordered by the commissioner upon documentation of an emergency fish disease in Minnesota waters, as defined in section 17.4982, subdivision 9. No more than four of each species may be transported at any one time, and any individual fish can be no longer than ten inches in total length. The commissioner may, by written order published in the State Register, prohibit transportation of live fish under this paragraph to help prevent spread of an emergency fish disease documented to occur in Minnesota waters. The order is exempt from the rulemaking provisions of chapter 14 and section 14.386 does not apply.
1986 c 386 art 3 s 19; 1993 c 231 s 53; 1996 c 410 s 43; 2006 c 281 art 2 s 47; 2008 c 307 s 13; 2008 c 368 art 2 s 59; 1Sp2011 c 2 art 5 s 59
Structure Minnesota Statutes
Chapters 97 - 102 — Game And Fish
Section 97C.001 — Experimental Waters.
Section 97C.005 — Special Management Waters.
Section 97C.007 — Northern Pike Experimental And Special Management Waters.
Section 97C.02 — Acquiring Critical Aquatic Habitat.
Section 97C.021 — Angling Restricted In Trout Streams.
Section 97C.025 — Fishing And Motorboats Restricted In Certain Areas.
Section 97C.035 — Endangered Fish Populations.
Section 97C.041 — Commissioner May Remove Rough Fish And Catfish.
Section 97C.045 — Removing Rough Fish From Boundary Waters.
Section 97C.051 — Special Permits To Use Piscicides.
Section 97C.055 — Removing Dead Fish.
Section 97C.061 — Dragging Weight Or Anchor Through Vegetation.
Section 97C.065 — Pollutants In Waters.
Section 97C.071 — Structures In Public Waters.
Section 97C.075 — Fish Screens In Flowing Waters.
Section 97C.077 — Fish Screens In Lakes.
Section 97C.081 — Fishing Contests.
Section 97C.085 — Permit Required For Tagging Fish.
Section 97C.087 — Special Fish Management Tags.
Section 97C.201 — State Fish Stocking Prohibited Without Public Access.
Section 97C.203 — Exchanging Fish Or Wildlife Resources; Disposal Of State Hatchery Products.
Section 97C.205 — Transporting And Stocking Fish.
Section 97C.211 — Private Fish Hatcheries.
Section 97C.215 — Special Permits For United States Agents.
Section 97C.301 — License Required To Take Fish.
Section 97C.303 — Conservation Angling License.
Section 97C.305 — Trout-and-salmon Stamp Validation.
Section 97C.311 — Lake Superior Fishing-guide License.
Section 97C.315 — Angling Lines And Hooks.
Section 97C.317 — Fishing By Party.
Section 97C.321 — Restrictions On Unattended Lines.
Section 97C.325 — Restrictions On Taking Fish.
Section 97C.327 — Measuring Fish Length.
Section 97C.331 — Snagging Fish Prohibited.
Section 97C.335 — Use Of Artificial Lights To Take Fish Prohibited.
Section 97C.341 — Certain Aquatic Life Prohibited For Bait.
Section 97C.342 — Disease-free Certification; Frozen Or Dead Fish Bait.
Section 97C.345 — Restrictions On Using And Possessing Nets And Spears.
Section 97C.351 — Fish Nets; Tags.
Section 97C.355 — Shelters On Ice; Dark Houses And Fish Houses.
Section 97C.361 — Restrictions On Fish Houses And Dark Houses In Boundary Waters Canoe Area.
Section 97C.371 — Spearing Fish.
Section 97C.375 — Taking Rough Fish By Spearing.
Section 97C.376 — Bow Fishing.
Section 97C.381 — Harpooning Rough Fish.
Section 97C.385 — Commissioner's Authority To Regulate Winter Fishing.
Section 97C.391 — Buying And Selling Fish.
Section 97C.395 — Open Seasons For Angling.
Section 97C.411 — Sturgeon And Paddlefish.
Section 97C.415 — Trout And Salmon.
Section 97C.417 — Reporting Invasive Carp.
Section 97C.501 — Minnow Licenses Required.
Section 97C.502 — Minnows And Leeches; Invasive Species Training Required.
Section 97C.511 — Minnow Seines.
Section 97C.515 — Imported Minnows.
Section 97C.521 — Transporting Carp Fingerlings Prohibited.
Section 97C.525 — Restrictions On Transporting Minnows.
Section 97C.611 — Turtle Species; Limits.
Section 97C.621 — Areas May Be Closed To Taking Turtles.
Section 97C.701 — Taking Mussels.
Section 97C.801 — Taking Rough Fish On Mississippi River.
Section 97C.805 — Netting Lake Whitefish And Ciscoes.
Section 97C.811 — Commercial Fishing In Inland Waters.
Section 97C.815 — Commercial Fishing Areas.
Section 97C.821 — Possessing, Selling, And Transporting Commercial Fish.
Section 97C.825 — Lake Of The Woods And Rainy Lake Fishing.
Section 97C.831 — Namakan And Sand Point Lakes; Commercial Fishing.
Section 97C.835 — Lake Superior Commercial Fishing.
Section 97C.836 — Lake Superior Lake Trout; Expanded Assessment Harvest.
Section 97C.841 — Apprentice License.
Section 97C.843 — Possession For Commercial Netting.
Section 97C.845 — Interference With Commercial Fishing.
Section 97C.851 — Commercial Fishing In International Waters; Resort Owners.
Section 97C.855 — Upper And Lower Red Lake And Nett Lake; Transportation, Sale, And Disposal.
Section 97C.861 — Fish Vendors; Requirements.