La. Admin. Code tit. 76 § VII-371

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 9, September 20, 2024

Section VII-371 - Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) Requirements

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.

La. Admin. Code tit. 76, § VII-371

Promulgated by the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Wildlife and Fisheries Commission, LR 34:888 (May 2008), amended LR 38:1997 (August 2012).

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.