South Carolina Code of Laws
Chapter 5 - Marine Resources Act
Section 50-5-15. Definitions.

As used in this title pertaining to saltwaters:
(1) "Anadromous" identifies fish which undertake adult migration from brackish or salt waters into freshwaters to spawn, except striped bass or rock fish and hybrid bass, and includes landlocked stocks of those fish.
(2) "Bang stick" means a device containing a charge mounted on a spear, pole, or other contrivance which is activated in order to stun or kill fish or other marine resource.
(3) "Board" means the South Carolina Board of Natural Resources.
(4) "Bottoms" are all of the lands within this State covered at mean high water from the freshwater/saltwater dividing line seaward to the seawardmost limits of the territorial sea.
(5) "Bull rake" means a rake having a basket and a width greater than twelve inches.
(6) "Bushel" means one U.S. bushel.
(7) "Cast net" means nonbaited circular webbing having a weighted peripheral line which is thrown by hand and retrieved by a central line connected to radiating tuck lines attached to the peripheral line.
(8) "Catadromous" identifies fish which undertake adult migration from freshwater into brackish or salt water to spawn.
(9) "Channel net" means any conical-shaped, fixed, or stationary net used for taking shrimp which:
(a) is attached to poles, stakes, anchors, buoys, or other fixed objects; and
(b) has a mesh size of less than two and one-half inches when the mesh is stretched; and is also known as a set net.
(10) "Charter fishing vessel" means a vessel used to transport recreational saltwater fishermen for hire and includes charter, party, and head boats.
(11) "Commercial equipment" means:
(a) any trawl, haul seine, gill net, channel net, bull rake, seed fork, grabs, escalator, or dredge; and
(b) any net, seine, trap, pot, tongs, rake, fork, trotline, or other device or appliance when used for taking or attempting to take fish for a commercial purpose.
(12) "Commercial purpose" means:
(a) being engaged in buying or selling fish;
(b) taking or attempting to take fish in order to derive income or other consideration;
(c) using commercial equipment; and
(d) otherwise being engaged in the fisheries industry with the intent to derive income.
(13) "Conservation of fisheries" means management, regulation, data collection and analysis, permitting, public interactions, enhancement and protection of fisheries stocks and habitat, law enforcement, and research.
(14) "Conviction" or "convicted" means adjudication at trial or civil hearing and includes the entry of a plea of guilty, or nolo contendere, or the forfeiture of bail or collateral deposited to secure a defendant's appearance in court.
(15) "Crustacean" means all forms of crabs, shrimp, crayfish, stone crabs, lobsters, and other motile fish having a chitonized shell excluding snails and horseshoe crabs.
(16) "Culch" means oyster shell or other substrate which is purposely placed for propagation of oysters through the attachment of oyster larvae.
(17) "Cultured live rock" means a type of live rock which has been produced as a result of cultivation under controlled conditions, as in aquaculture operations. Live rock culture specifically entails the deposition of substrate materials for the express purpose of removing the material at a later date for use, sale, or trade as live rock.
(18) "Department" means the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources unless otherwise stated.
(19) "Dredge" means equipment used for harvesting bottom dwelling aquatic life which is not a trawl and is powered by mechanical means, and is designed to contact the bottom when in operation.
(20) "Drop net" means a net mounted to a rigid frame with its diameter or diagonal width being eight feet or less and designed to be fished vertically by hand.
(21) "Elver" means all American eels (Anguilla rostrata) less than or equal to six inches in total length.
(22) "Fish" means finfish, shellfish including mollusks, crustaceans, horseshoe crabs, whelks (conchs), turtles, and terrapin or products thereof.
(23) "Fishing" means all activity and effort involved in taking or attempting to take fish.
(24) "Fishery and fisheries" mean the interactions within and between:
(a) the populations of fish or marine resources being harvested;
(b) the populations of fishermen;
(c) the method, equipment, and effort involved in taking or attempting to take fish;
(d) the processing, transporting, offering for sale, or selling of fish or marine resources; and
(e) the natural resources supporting that interaction.
(25) "Fold up trap" means a pyramid-shaped plastic or wire meshed collapsing trap, with a square base panel and triangular-shaped side panels, that opens outward to occupy a single plane when placed on the water bottom. It is baited in the center of the base panel and encloses crabs when retrieved by means of a cord drawing together the topmost points of the side triangles.
(26) "Fork length" means the length of a fish laid flat and measured from the tip of the closed mouth (snout) to the center of the fork of the tail. It is a straight line measure, not over the curvature of the body.
(27) "Gig" means a device used to spear fish by hand; to take fish by hand by use of a prong, spear, or similar device and includes bow and arrow.
(28) "Gill net" means a net which is designed to hang vertically and capture fish by entanglement usually of the head, gill covers, or preopercles, and does not include gill net for taking shad unless specified.
(29) "Haul seine" means a net of twine no smaller than #9 with a stretched mesh size no smaller than two inches and no larger than two and seven-eighths inches, one end of which is anchored to the shore and the other end is moved through the water by a vessel to take fish by encircling the fish and then being mechanically drawn to the shore.
(30) "Herring" means all life stages of the river herrings being blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis) and alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus).
(31) "Inshore salt waters" means those salt waters of this State between the landward limit of the Atlantic Ocean connected by COLREG demarcation lines, and the freshwater/saltwater dividing line.
(32) "Landed" or "to land" means to take and retain possession while afloat or to take and bring ashore.
(33) "Live rock" means living saltwater organisms or an assemblage of them attached to a hard substrate including dead coral or rock. Living saltwater organisms associated with hard bottoms, banks, reefs, and live rock include, but are not limited to:
(a) sea anemones (Phylum Cnidaria: Class Anthozoa: Order Actinaria);
(b) sponges (Phylum Porifera);
(c) tube worms (Phylum Annelida) including fan worms, feather duster worms, and Christmas tree worms;
(d) bryozoans (Phylum Bryozoa);
(e) sea squirts (Phylum Chordata); and
(f) marine algae including mermaid's fan and cups (Udotea spp.), corraline algae, green feather and green grape algae (Caulerpa spp.), and watercress (Halimeda spp.).
(34) "Mariculture" means controlled cultivation in confinement of marine and estuarine organisms in salt waters.
(35) "Marine resource" means any live, fresh, processed, or frozen whole, part, or portion of any marine organism, anadromous fish, or catadromous fish, to include shell deposits occurring upon or within state-owned bottoms and those lying above the mean high water mark if created by processes of natural accretion upon state-owned lands or bottoms.
(36) "Mile" means one nautical mile, being six thousand seventy-six feet.
(37) "Minnow trap" means a trap having no opening which has a dimension greater than one inch only when used for taking small finfish for bait.
(38) "Mollusk" or "molluscan" means a member of the phylum Mollusca.
(39) "Peeler crab" means a hard crab of the blue crab species (Callinectes sapidus) which has a fully formed soft shell beneath the exterior hard shell and exhibits molt signs in the form of red, pink, or white lines just inside the exterior margin of the rear paddle (swimming) legs.
(40) "Peeler trap" means a trap constructed of one inch or smaller hexagonal wire which is:
(a) unbaited; or
(b) baited with only one live male crab and may have one single piece of fish having no dimension greater than three inches.
(41) "Pot" has the same definition as "trap" herein contained.
(42) "Protected species" means a species with which man's interaction is legally controlled, restricted, or prohibited either continually or periodically.
(43) "Public fishing pier" means piers open to the public which charge a fee to fish.
(44) "Recreational fishermen" means persons taking or attempting to take saltwater fish for recreation only, and not for commercial purposes.
(45) "Salt waters" mean all waters of the rivers and their tributaries, streams, and estuaries lying seaward of the dividing line between salt water and freshwater and all impounded waters seaward of the dividing line between salt water and freshwater which are intermittently filled or drained by the action of the tide.
(46) "Saltwater gamefish" means a species of saltwater fish designated as a saltwater gamefish in this title.
(47) "Saltwater privileges" mean the privilege of participating or assisting in the taking or attempting to take or to buy, receive, handle, pack, process, ship, consign, sell, barter, or trade a saltwater fish or marine resource and includes the privilege to hold any license, permit, or stamp authorizing such activity.
(48) "Seed fork" means a fork manufactured having seven or more straight or slightly curved tines or having a tine greater than eight inches in length. All tines must be at least one inch apart unless utilized for mariculture harvest.
(49) "Shad" means American or white shad (Alosa sapidissima) and hickory or skip-jack shad (Alosa mediocris).
(50) "Shellfish" means oysters, clams, mussels, scallops, and all nonmotile molluscan fish having shells.
(51) "Shoreline" means the line of mean high water along that portion of a land mass which is in direct contact with the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
(52) "Shrimp seine" means an unanchored net having a stretched mesh of not less than one inch but no greater than one and three-quarters inches, the webbing of which does not exceed forty feet in length or six feet in depth, which is continually moved through the water by human and not mechanical power, and which has no tail bag or cod.
(53) "Shrimp trawl" means a trawl with netting having a stretch mesh size of less than two and one-half inches.
(54) "Sponge crab" means a female blue crab bearing visible eggs.
(55) "State resident" has the same meaning as prescribed in Chapter 9 of this title unless otherwise indicated.
(56) "State waters" extend to the seaward limit of the territorial sea.
(57) "Stretch" as used to describe the measure of mesh of nets means that the material is pulled snugly but not to the point of lengthening the single or multistrand line of the netting. Measurement is made across the widest dimension of the mesh when pulled.
(58) "Striker" means a person, other than a licensed saltwater commercial fisherman, who under immediate supervision assists a licensed commercial saltwater fisherman, but does not use separate commercial equipment on a vessel which is engaged in commercial fishing.
(59) "Take" means to harass intentionally, hunt, capture, gather, harvest, remove, catch, wound, or kill or attempt to harass, hunt, capture, gather, harvest, remove, catch, wound, or kill.
(60) "Territorial sea" means that portion of the Atlantic Ocean under the jurisdiction of the State of South Carolina.
(61) "Total length" means the length of a fish laid flat and measured from the closed mouth (snout) to the tip of the tail fin when pinched together. It is a straight line measure, not over the curvature of the body.
(62) "Trap" is an enclosed device used for taking fish, constructed to facilitate entry but prohibit or restrict exit of fish and is also called "pot".
(63) "Trawl" means a net, other than a haul seine, towed behind a boat.
(64) "Trawler" means a vessel rigged for towing a trawl.
(65) "Trawling" means fishing with a trawl or having part of a trawl door in the water.
(66) "Trotline" means a single line or wire having numerous hooks or baits and is also called long line.
(67) "Southern Cobia Management Zone" means all waters of this State south of 032° 31.0' N latitude, the approximate latitude of Jeremy Inlet, Edisto Island.
(68) "Shellfish mariculture" means the controlled cultivation of shellfish in confinement from seed size until harvest.
(69) "Shellfish seed" means any shellfish that does not exceed one inch in height or maximum dimension.
HISTORY: 2000 Act No. 245, Section 1; 2001 Act No. 105, Section 1; 2002 Act No. 342, Sections 1, 2; 2009 Act No. 15, Section 4, eff July 1, 2009; 2013 Act No. 7, Section 2, eff March 22, 2013; 2013 Act No. 72, Section 2, eff June 13, 2013; 2016 Act No. 166 (H.4709), Section 1, eff April 29, 2016; 2017 Act No. 30 (S.465), Section 1, eff May 10, 2017.
Effect of Amendment
The 2009 amendment in the introductory statement substituted "title pertaining to saltwaters" for "chapter except as specified in Article 19"; added definitions of "drop net" and "fold up trap", deleted the definition of "skim-bow net", and renumbered as necessary for the items to be alphabetical; in the definition of "landed" substituted "retain possession while afloat or to take and bring ashore" for "bring a saltwater fish ashore"; in the definition of "shrimp seine" deleted from the end of the first sentence and the beginning of the second "unanchored net having a stretched mesh of not less than one inch but no greater than one and three quarters inches, the webbing of which does not exceed forty feet in length or six feet in depth, which is continually moved through the water by human and not mechanical power. Beginning on the date three years following the effective date of this definition, 'shrimp seine' means"; in the definition of "territorial sea" deleted from the end "as depicted on charts of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or its successor agency"; and made nonsubstantive changes throughout.
The first 2013 amendment added subsection (61), the definition of "total length", and redesignated accordingly.
The second 2013 amendment added subsection (26), the definition of "fork length", and redesignated accordingly.
2016 Act No. 166, Section 1, added (67), relating to the Southern Cobia Management Zone.
2017 Act No. 30, Section 1, added (68), relating to shellfish mariculture, and added (69), relating to shellfish seed.

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