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5 GCA § 63101

Definitions

Guam Code AnnotatedTitle 5 — Government Operations
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As used in this Article:

(a)“Altering” means to change, damage, impact, break, remove, relocate, or to harm, resulting from activities to include, but not limited to, construction, drilling, trenching, mechanical equipment, and development;

(b)“Angling” means taking of aquatic animal life with a hook;

(c)“Aquatic Life” means includes all aquatic animals and aquatic plants;

(d)“Coral” means any live or dead member or part thereof of the Phylum Cnidaria that form calcareous skeletons, spicules, or sclerites (including soft and hard corals both hermatypic and ahermatypic) or exist as sessile, solitary, or colonial polyps. Those members include, but are not limited to, all stony corals (Scleractinia), fire corals (Milleporina), hydrocorals (Stylasterina), soft corals (Alcyonacea), blue corals (Coenothecalia), organpipe corals and relatives (Stononifera) sea fans (Gorgonacea), black corals (Antipatharia), and sea anemones (Order Actinaria, Ceriantharia, and Zoanthidea);

(e)“Firearm” means any weapon, the operating force of which is an explosive. This definition includes pistols, revolvers, rifles, shotguns, machine guns, automatic rifles, noxious gas projectors, mortars, bombs, cannons, submachine guns, powerheads, and bangsticks. The specific mention of certain weapons does not exclude from this definition other weapons operated by explosives;

(f)“Fish” means any aquatic animal life, including, but not limited to, oysters, clams, mollusks, mussels, crustaceans, other shellfish, and coral;

(g)“Fish Weir” means an apparatus for catching fish, consisting of a pocket or trap, with one or more wings or leaders, or both. Any reference to a fish weir in this Article includes any part or CH. 63 FISH, GAME, FORESTRY AND CONSERVATION component thereof, including any pole, support, net, brush, wire, mesh, rope, or other item or material. For the purpose of this Article, there are two

(2)types of fish weirs:

(1)“Main weir” means the central pocket or trap of any fish weir and its leader (main entrance) and wings (side entrance); and

(2)“Auxiliary weir” means any supplementary trap or pocket and its leader and wings which are attached to the leader or wings of a main weir;

(h)“Game” means all native or introduced species of wild birds and wild or feral animals;

(i)“Juvenile Goatfish” (Ti’åo) is defined as fish within the family Mullidae (Goatfishes) that are four

(4)inches (100 mm) or smaller when measured from the tip of the snout or jaw to the rear center edge or fork of the tail (fork length);

(j)“Juvenile Jacks” (I’e’) is defined as fish within the family Carangidae (Jacks) that are four

(4)inches (100 mm) or smaller when measured from the tip of the snout or jaw to the rear center edge or fork of the tail (fork length);

(k)Juvenile Rabbitfish” (Mañåhak) is defined as fish within the family Siganidae (Rabbitfishes) that are three

(3)inches (76 mm) or smaller when measured from the tip of the snout or jaw to the rear center edge or fork of the tail (fork length);

(l)“Mangroves” are defined as plants growing in soils with a high salt content and/or possess a well-developed system of conducting tissue to transport water, mineral salts, and sugars that occur in estuarine-tidal flat areas to include, but not limited to, species in the family Rhizophoraceae;

(m)“Marine Preserve” is defined as a delineated area in which certain activities or uses are permanently restricted or prohibited;

(n)“Resource” is defined as any non-living, or living entity;

(o)“Rock” is defined as any hard material larger than sand size grains made from a mineral or petrified mass including, but not limited to, coral skeleton that has been weathered to form limestone;

(p)“Sand” is defined as any loose grainy non-living material formed from the erosion of rocks, skeletal material and/or calcium carbonate formations;

(q)“Seagrass” is defined as any species of marine angiosperms (flowering plants) to include, but not limited to, species in the families Hydrocharitaceae and Potamogetonaceae;

(r)“Snagging” is defined as fishing in a manner with jerking motions with hooks and line in an attempt to pierce the body of the fish externally;

(s)“Take” is defined as hunt, pursue, catch, capture, angle, seize, kill, trap, harm, shoot in any way or by any agency or device; every attempt to do such acts or to assist any other person in the doing of or the attempt to do such acts;

(t)“Traditional Fishing Methods” is defined as subsistence-level cultural fishing practices in which the catch is not marketed, but rather is shared within the family or community for purposes of home consumption. Traditional methods most commonly include, but are not necessarily limited to:

(1)cast net (talåya);

(2)drag net/seine (chenchulon ma hålla);

(3)surround net (chenchulon ma sugon);

(4)trap net (chenchulon ma mongle); and CH. 63 FISH, GAME, FORESTRY AND CONSERVATION

(5)butterfly net (chenchulon ababbang).

(u)“Vehicle” is defined as including every description of carriage or other contrivance used, or capable of being used, as means of transportation on, below, or above the land, including boat trailers, but does not include aircraft;

(v)“Vessel” is defined as including every description of watercraft or other contrivance used, or capable of being used, as means of transportation in water; and

(w)“Waters of Guam” is defined as that area of shore and waters seaward of the mean high water line

(mark)to the outermost limits of Guam’s exclusive economic zone as provided by 1 GCA § 402(a).

(x)“Ray” is defined as animals in the Order Myliobatiformes, including, but not limited to, Eagle Rays (Aetobatus narinari), Manta Rays (Manta birostris) and Blue-spotted Rays (Taeniura lymma).

(y)“Shark” is defined as an animal commonly known as a shark and includes all animals in the Orders Hexanchiformes, Pristiophoriformes, Squaliformes, Squatiniforms, Heterodontiformes, Orectolobiformes, Lamniformes and Carcharhiniformes.

(z)“Shark Fin” is defined, for the purpose of this Act, as the fin or tail of a shark that has been removed from the body.

(aa)“Ray Part” is defined as any part of a ray.

(bb)“Shark Finning” is defined as the taking of a shark, removing the fin or fins (whether or not including the tail) of a shark, and returning the remainder of the shark to the sea.

(cc)“Community-Based Fisheries Management” a system in which fishermen and their communities exercise primary responsibility for stewardship and fisheries management, to include taking part in the decision-making on all aspects of fisheries management, such as harvesting, access, compliance, research, and marketing.

(dd)“SCUBA Diving” is defined as a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses any apparatus or device that contains compressed air or a mixture of air and gas; including, but not limited to, SCUBA (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus), Nitrox, and surface supplied air, and rebreathers.

§ The story of this section

  1. Affected by P.L. 6-87 (bill & sponsor pending — earlier Legislature not yet ingested)
  2. Amended by P.L. 16-39 § 1 (bill & sponsor pending — earlier Legislature not yet ingested)
  3. Amended by P.L. 20-185 § 2 (bill & sponsor pending — earlier Legislature not yet ingested)
  4. Amended by P.L. 25-186 § 9 — introduced as Bill 404-25 · introduced by Vicente C. Pangelinan
  5. Affected by P.L. 28-107 § 2 — introduced as Bill 228-28 · introduced by Joanne Brown
  6. Enacted by P.L. 31-10 § 1 — introduced as Bill 44-31 · introduced by Benjamin J.F. Cruz + 2 cosponsors
  7. Amended by P.L. 31-200 § 1 — introduced as Bill 405-31 · introduced by Benjamin J.F. Cruz + 2 cosponsors
  8. Enacted by P.L. 34-72 § 3 — introduced as Bill 86-34 · introduced by William M. Castro + 3 cosponsors
  9. Enacted by P.L. 35-78 § 2 — introduced as Bill 53-35 · introduced by Sabina Flores Perez + 2 cosponsors

Interpreted by the courts:

  • 1998 Guam 16Department of Agriculture vs. One (1) Remington Shotgun, et al. (1998) · per Benjamin J.F. Cruz, J. · pinpoints (g) at ¶7

Reconstructed from the Guam Code Annotated. For the authoritative version, see the official PDF.