2012 Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes
Title 30 - FISH
Chapter 73 - Shad Fishing in Delaware River and Bay
Section 7308 - Issuance of additional licenses

     § 7308.  Issuance of additional licenses.
        (a)  When authorized.--When the United States Fish and
     Wildlife Service or its successor certifies that the catch of
     shad in the Delaware River and Bay and their tributaries for the
     preceding year totals 500,000 fish, the executive director shall
     consult with the pertinent administrative and other officials of
     the states of New York, New Jersey and Delaware, constituting
     the Middle Atlantic Section of the Atlantic States Marine
     Fisheries Commission, and with the technical advisers of the
     United States Fish and Wildlife Service or its successor and,
     after such consultation and on the basis of all the scientific
     evidence available to the commission through these and other
     sources, if the commission finds that a limited number of
     additional operators or increased units of gear may be licensed
     for the following season without impairing the annual yield of
     the fishery it may authorize additional licenses.
        (b)  Determining number of licenses.--In determining the
     number of additional licenses, the commission shall give due
     consideration to the findings of the United States Fish and
     Wildlife Service or its successor. The commission may enter into
     such administrative agreements with the pertinent administrative
     officials of any of the other states enumerated in subsection
     (a) as may be necessary to establish a joint limitation of
     licenses and such cooperative programs as may be deemed
     necessary for the re-establishment of the shad fishery of the
     Delaware River and Bay and their tributaries in such manner as
     to promote the maximum sustained annual yield therefrom.
        (c)  Notice of proposed additional licenses.--When additional
     units of gear are to be licensed, the executive director shall
     give public notice, by advertisement once a week for two
     successive weeks in at least two daily newspapers of the
     counties of the state bordering on the Delaware River, of the
     additional units of gear to be licensed and the areas where they
     may be operated, and shall state that applications may be
     received up to January 1 next succeeding the publication of the
     notice.
        (d)  Grounds for refusing license.--The executive director
     may decline to receive any application for an additional license
     when, after due notice and opportunity for hearing, he finds
     that the applicant is not qualified by character, experience,
     financial responsibility and equipment to conduct properly the
     fishing operation applied for, or when, after due notice and
     opportunity for hearing, he finds that it is necessary, in order
     to maintain the stability of the industry or prevent conditions
     leading to monopoly, to prefer the applications of new operators
     over the extension of the operations of previous licenses, or,
     in the licensing of extended operations, to prefer small over
     large operators.
        (e)  Time and method of issuance.--On January 1 of each year,
     the commission shall issue such additional licenses as may be
     authorized for that year under the provisions of this section,
     the recipients of such licenses and the locations of fixed nets
     to be chosen by lot from among the applications received
     whenever there are more applicants than available licenses or
     more than one applicant for any location.

        Cross References.  Section 7308 is referred to in section
     7312 of this title.