N.J. Admin. Code § 7:25-6.26

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 24, December 18, 2024

Section 7:25-6.26 - Fish stocking; fish culture facilities

(a) No person may release any live indigenous or exotic fish, or their eggs, into the aquatic environment without a permit. For the purposes of this subchapter, indigenous and exotic fish shall include all fish species, their subspecies and hybrids.

(b) An application for a fish stocking permit must be submitted at least four weeks prior to the requested stocking date. Applications may be obtained from and, when complete, shall be submitted to the Division at:

New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife

Bureau of Freshwater Fisheries

P.O. Box 394

Lebanon, New Jersey 08833

(c) An application for a fish stocking permit shall include the following information, as well as any supplemental information required by this section:

1. Applicant name;

2. Applicant address;

3. Applicant phone number;

4. If different, pond owner's name and address;

5. Pond owner's signature;

6. Waterbody location;

7. Water body size;

8. Fish species present in the waterbody;

9. Waterbody access, public or private;

10. Species of fish requesting to stock;

11. Number of fish requesting to stock;

12. Size range of fish requesting to stock;

13. Source of fish;

14. If stocking is relative to an event or tournament, date of event;

15. If the fish are marked or tagged, the type of tag to be used;

16. Anticipated stocking date;

17. Applicant signature; and

18. If requesting to stock grass carp, the following additional information is required:

i. Percent of weed cover;

ii. Description of weed problem, including species; and

iii. Photographs of inlet and outlet structures.

(d) If information submitted to the Division is incomplete, the Division may either deny the application or request that the applicant provide additional information within a specified timeframe. Failure to provide the additional information within the time frame specified shall result in denial of the application.

(e) An application for a fish stocking permit shall be approved if the Director determines that the introduction of the fish species, the number of fish proposed to be introduced, and the source of the fish proposed to be introduced will not create a potential risk to the freshwater resources of the State, and the proposed fish stocking is consistent with Division management plans and established stocking programs.

(f) The permit must be in the possession of the individual(s) performing the stocking on the day of the stocking event.

(g) Except for triploid grass carp for weed control purposes, the stocking of carp, including koi or goldfish, is prohibited. Any carp, including koi and goldfish and potentially dangerous fish collected as a result of a permitted lowering must be destroyed.

(h) Only sterile triploid grass carp may be approved for stocking, strictly for the purposes of biological weed control, provided:

1. The waterbody is less than 10 surface acres in size;

2. Inlet or outlet structures in the impoundment are situated and constructed in a way that prevents escape of fish from the impoundment and are permanently affixed; and

3. No more than a total of 100 grass carp may be stocked into any single impoundment.

(i) Permits will not be approved to stock any species of fish in the Pequest Wildlife Management Area, or any trout species within the Pequest River drainage. The Pequest State Trout Hatchery or Hackettstown State Fish Hatchery will be the only sources approved for stocking within these areas.

(j) Permits will not be approved to stock esocids in Budd Lake, Echo Lake Reservoir, Farrington Lake, Mercer Lake, Monksville Reservoir, Mountain Lake, or Spruce Run Reservoir. Permits will not be approved to stock any species of fish within Trout Brook (Hackettstown). The Hackettstown State Fish Hatchery will be the only source approved for stocking within these areas.

(k) Except for fish taken from one waterbody and reintroduced to another waterbody pursuant to N.J.A.C. 7:25-6.25, the source of all fish to be introduced to the waters of the State must be from an approved fish culture facility. A list of approved fish culture facilities shall be provided by the Division with the application for a fish stocking permit.

(l) To be approved, fish culture facilities must:

1. Submit a completed "Fish Health History Request" form to the Division on an annual basis. The Fish Health History Request form shall include the following information, as well as any supplemental information required by this section:

i. Name of the fish culture facility;

ii. Address of the facility;

iii. Identification of the owner of the facility;

iv. Contact information for facility;

v. Fish species offered for sale;

vi. Origin of all fish stocks;

vii. Occurrence of disease outbreaks within the facility;

viii. Confirm that fish health inspections were performed at the facility over the last year;

ix. Origin of any eggs brought into the facility; and

x. For facilities offering triploid grass carp, contact information for the agency that performed triploid certification;

2. Obtain a Fish Health History Request form from, and when complete, submit to, the Division at:

New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife

Office of Fish and Wildlife Health and Forensics

605 Pequest Road

Oxford, NJ 07863;

3. Provide documentation that all non-salmonid stocks of fish have been inspected and found free of the viral diseases including Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS), Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis (IPN), and Spring Viremia of Carp (SVC). Any agent causing cytopathic effects (CPE) in cell lines and associated with fish mortality must be reported. Additionally, documentation shall be provided that all non-salmonid stocks have been inspected and found free of bacterial diseases including enteric redmouth caused by Yersinia ruckeri and furunculosis caused by Aeromonas salmonicida;

4. Provide documentation that all salmonid stocks of fish have been inspected and found free of Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis virus (IPN), Infectious Hematopoietic Necrosis (IHN), Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS), Bacterial kidney disease (BKD), Bacterial Furunculosis (BF), Bacterial redmouth (BRM), and whirling disease, Myxobolus cerebralis. Any agent causing cytopathic effects (CPE) in cell lines and associated with fish mortality must be reported;

5. Provide documentation that a complete health inspection, including parasitological examination, has been performed on all fish stocks that have been obtained from the wild;

6. Perform any inspections required by this subsection using methods recommended by the American Fisheries Society Fish Health Section Blue Book, http://www.afs-fhs.org/bluebook/bluebook-index.php, or The World Organization for Animal Health, also known as Office International des Epizooties (OIE). Additional information is provided at the American Fisheries Society website at http://www.fisheries.org/units/fhs/, or the website of the World Organization for Animal Health at http://www.oie.int/eng/en_index.htm.

i. An accredited inspector, as defined by the American Fisheries Society Fish Health Section Blue Book, must select and submit sample lots of fish. The inspector must not be affiliated with the private fish culture facility;

ii. Sixty fish per species per lot must be inspected in the facility or, alternatively, a site inspection of 150 total fish, representative of the species reared at the facility. For the site inspection, the inspector shall identify and select the most susceptible species to the pathogens of interest and select moribund fish when available;

iii. For facilities rearing both salmonid and non-salmonid species on site, either 60 fish per species per lot must be inspected, or a site inspection of 300 fish is required, including a representative sample of 150 salmonid and 150 non-salmonid fish. For whirling disease testing, if fish are held in a shared water supply, only 60 of the most susceptible species need to be tested;

iv. Facility personnel must notify the Division of imported lots of fish not represented on the current year's annual fish health inspection report; and

v. A separate health inspection is required for imported lots of fish not represented on the facility's annual fish health inspection report prior to, and within 12 months of, stocking;

7. Accept the responsibility for, and cost of any fish health inspections required for approval;

8. Keep accurate records of fish health inspections and transfers of fish into and out of the facility. These records shall be open for inspection by Division employees or representatives, at reasonable hours; and

9. IIf located west of the continental divide or outside of North America, or if the fish culture facility identifies its source of fish, or eggs, as from a facility located within this area:

i. In addition to fish health requirements specified in (1)1 through 8 above, for salmonids provide documentation that all stocks of fish reared in the hatchery have been inspected and found free of Proliferative Kidney Disease (PKD), caused by the myxozoan parasite Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae, and Ceratonova Shasta, formerly known as Ceratomyxa shasta; and

ii. Supply only fertilized eggs that have been subjected to iodine disinfection. No salmonid fish (fry, fingerling, or adult) other than certified, disinfected eggs may be brought into New Jersey from areas where Infectious Hematopoietic Necrosis (IHN) or Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS) viruses are enzootic in salmonid stocks.

N.J. Admin. Code § 7:25-6.26

Amended by 48 N.J.R. 1290(a), effective 6/20/2016