4VAC20-950-10: Purpose

The purposes of this chapter are to (i) reduce fishing mortality in the black sea bass fishery to ensure that overfishing does not occur, (ii) promote the health of the spawning stock biomass, (iii) improve the yield from the fishery, (iv) distribute shares of the black sea bass quota to those fishermen who demonstrate a previous history of participation in the fishery, and (v) encourage safe black sea bass aquaculture practices.