Dungeness crab.

(1) Existing law regulates the Dungeness crab fishery and, among other things, permits the Director of Fish and Game to delay the opening of the fishery in specified situations and regulates the taking of crab during those delays. Existing law sets forth the qualifications for a Dungeness crab vessel permit, and provides that no person shall use a vessel to take, possess, or land Dungeness crab for commercial purposes without a Dungeness crab vessel permit. Existing law sets forth requirements for the issuance, transfer, and revocation of a vessel permit, and prescribes fees for each permit or permit transfer. Under existing law, the holder of a Dungeness crab vessel permit, upon approval by the Department of Fish and Game, is authorized to temporarily transfer the permit to a replacement vessel for a period of up to 6 months during the current permit year, if the permitted vessel is seriously damaged, suffers major mechanical breakdown, or is lost or destroyed. Existing law requires the director to convene a Dungeness crab review panel for the purpose of reviewing applications for vessel permits and permit transfers, if the department makes a specified determination. Existing law provides that those provisions shall become inoperative on April 1, 2012, and, as of January 1, 2013, are repealed. This bill would extend the operation of those provisions until April 1, 2019, and would repeal those provisions on January 1, 2020. The bill would subject a person who fishes without a Dungeness crab vessel permit, or who uses a Dungeness crab vessel permit to fish illegally on a vessel other than the permitted one, to specified penalties. The bill would authorize a person to whom a Dungeness crab vessel permit is issued to retain the permit, and to transfer the permit to another vessel owned by that person, during a period of 2 years, in the event that the vessel for which the permit was originally issued is lost, destroyed, or seriously damaged, subject to approval by the department. The bill would require a permit retained under these circumstances to be revoked if it is not transferred to a replacement vessel within the 2-year period. The bill would require the director to adopt a program, by March 31, 2013, for Dungeness crab trap limits for all California permits. The director would be required to make specified allocations of crab trap tags. The program would require participants to pay a $5 crab trap tag fee and a $1,000 crab trap limit fee, as provided. The bill would create the Dungeness Crab Account in the Fish and Game Preservation Fund, and would require the fees collected to be deposited in that account. The money in the account would be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for administering and enforcing the program. The bill would require the imposition of specified penalties for a violation of the program requirements. The bill would create a Dungeness crab task force to make recommendations relating to the program, and meet other requirements, as provided. These provisions would become inoperative on April 1, 2019, and would be repealed on January 1, 2020. (2) Existing law authorizes the director to authorize one or more operators of commercial fishing vessels to take and land a limited number of Dungeness crab in November of each year for the purpose of quality testing according to a testing program and prohibits the sale of crab taken pursuant to the testing program, except for edible crabmeat, which may be used for charitable purposes. This bill would remove that exception for edible crabmeat used for charitable purposes. (3) Under existing law, except as expressly provided otherwise, any violation of the Fish and Game Code, or of any rule, regulation, or order made or adopted under the code, is a misdemeanor. Because this bill would extend the operation of the Dungeness crab vessel permit program and thereby the crimes imposed for a violation of those provisions, and impose additional requirements the violation of which may be crimes, the bill would create a state-mandated local program by creating new crimes. (4) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.