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New York · Through 2026-09-11

N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law § 11-1703: Importation, possession and sale of fish without license or permit; prohibitions

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Where this section sits in the code
  1. Environmental Conservation Law
  2. Article 11. Fish and Wildlife
  3. Title 17. Importation and Sale of Fish, Wildlife and Game From Outside the State; Sale of Domestic and Foreign Game and Hatchery Trout; Bird Plumage; Taxidermy

§ 11-1703. Importation, possession and sale of fish without license or

permit; prohibitions.

1. Except as provided in subdivision 3 and subdivision 4; (a) all

species of fish taken outside the state, except trout, black bass,

muskellunge and landlocked salmon other than Atlantic salmon, may be

imported and transported by any means and in any number, and may be

possessed, bought and sold without permit or license, during the open

season; (b) Atlantic salmon taken outside the state may be imported,

transported, bought and sold at any time.

2. Except as provided in subdivision 3 and subdivision 4, any person

may, during the closed season, without license or permit, and without

limitation by section 11-1707, transport into the state, buy, possess,

transport and sell, lake sturgeon, lake trout, whitefish, pickerel,

pike, walleye and striped bass taken outside the state, provided he

keeps a record and enters therein the name, residence and post office

address of every person from whom he buys and every person to whom he

sells or ships such fish. But this subdivision does not require that a

record be kept of persons to whom such fish are sold for personal or

home consumption, nor by persons who purchase in this state for

consumption and not for resale. A person required by this subdivision to

keep records shall permit the department or its agents to examine all

books and papers relating to such purchase and sale at any time and

shall on demand furnish invoices, freight or express receipts used in

such transactions.

3. a. No person shall sell, offer for sale or expose for sale, under

the name or designation of Lake Champlain fish, any fish other than fish

that have been taken from the waters of Lake Champlain, its bays, coves

or tributaries, the Missisquoi Bay or the Richelieu River. No person

shall wilfully and with intent to deceive, affix, apply or annex, or use

in connection with any fish, or any container of the same, any words or

other symbols, tending falsely to identify the origin of the contents as

the waters described in this paragraph.

b. No person shall possess or transport into the state any fish except

eels caught in that part of Missisquoi Bay in Lake Champlain lying in

the Province of Quebec or in the Richelieu River.

4. Fish of the following species taken outside the state shall not be

bought or sold or otherwise trafficked in if they are of less than the

size limits specified in this subdivision or in the sections to which it

refers:

a. striped bass, fluke or summer flounder, blue porgie, weakfish,

mackerel, sea bass, king fish, cod fish, blackfish, winter flounder, all

as specified in section 13-0339;

b. lake trout, pickerel, Atlantic sturgeon, Atlantic (landlocked)

salmon, whitefish, northern pike, all as specified in regulations of the

department.

5. Fish named in subdivision 4 of less than the size limits specified,

may be imported, transported and possessed as provided in section

11-1707.

6. No person shall import, export, own, possess, acquire or dispose of

live piranha fish (Serrasalmus, Rooseveltiella or Pyrocentrus), grass

carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) or hybrid grass carp within the state

without a license or permit issued at the discretion of the department

for scientific, biological or exhibition purposes.

7. Fish, except those specified in subdivision 6 of this section, may

be imported and transported at any time, for propagation purposes, and

the provisions of section 11-1707 do not apply.

Collected 2026-09-14T19:32:44Z. Source file · JSON

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