By: Kacal (Senate Sponsor - Kolkhorst) H.B. No. 1333
         (In the Senate - Received from the House April 17, 2023;
  May 2, 2023, read first time and referred to Committee on Water,
  Agriculture & Rural Affairs; May 4, 2023, reported favorably by the
  following vote:  Yeas 9, Nays 0; May 4, 2023, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
 
 
 
  COMMITTEE VOTE
 
 
         YeaNayAbsentPNV
         PerryX
         HancockX
         BlancoX
         FloresX
         GutierrezX
         JohnsonX
         KolkhorstX
         SparksX
         SpringerX
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
 
  relating to the sale and purchase of certain fish.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Sections 66.020(b) and (c), Parks and Wildlife
  Code, are amended to read as follows:
         (b)  This section applies to the possession, transportation,
  sale, or purchase of any fish described by Subsection (a) without
  regard to where the fish was taken, caught, or raised, but does not
  apply to:
               (1)  the transportation or possession of fish taken,
  caught, or raised outside this state and transported by common
  carrier without being unloaded from outside this state to a point of
  delivery outside this state;
               (2)  fish raised by being continuously fed a prepared
  feed and sold by an operator of a Texas commercial aquaculture
  facility, as defined by Section 134.001, Agriculture Code; [or]
               (3)  the sale of fish described by Subdivision (2) by:
                     (A)  a licensed wholesale fish dealer;
                     (B)  a licensed retail fish dealer; or
                     (C)  a restaurant;
               (4)  bass of the genus Micropterus and crappie if the
  fish are:
                     (A)  reared in private water; and
                     (B)  sold by an operator of a Texas commercial
  aquaculture facility for the purpose of stocking:
                           (i)  water of the state under a permit
  required under Section 66.015(b); or
                           (ii)  private water with the documentation
  required under Section 134.018, Agriculture Code; or
               (5)  the lawful importation by the holder of a Texas
  finfish import license into this state from another state or
  foreign country or the exclusive economic zone of farm-raised red
  drum, bass of the genus Micropterus, crappie, flathead catfish,
  striped bass, white bass, or a hybrid of any of those fish that have
  been continuously fed a prepared feed as a primary food source or
  lawfully taken, caught, or raised blue marlin, jewfish, longbill
  spearfish, muskellunge, northern pike, sailfish, sauger, snook,
  spotted sea trout, tarpon, walleye, white marlin, yellow bass, or a
  hybrid of any of those fish, if the fish are [transported or sold
  when not alive and are] tagged, invoiced, packaged, and labeled
  under regulations of the commission and if the license holder
  complies with any requirements the commission may establish by
  proclamation that the fish enter the stream of commerce for sale in
  this state in a condition allowing ready identification of the
  species, including a requirement that the fish come into the state
  with the head and tail intact and tagged and a requirement that an
  invoice accompany all imported fish regulated by this section
  through each sales transaction, including transactions at the place
  of the final sale to the consumer.
         (c)  Notwithstanding Subsection (b)(5) [(b)(3) of this
  section], the commission may allow subsequent sale of lawfully
  imported fish without the head and tail intact and without a tag if
  the fish are labeled in a manner prescribed by the commission and
  the tag when removed is destroyed. A tag, if required, must be of a
  type prescribed by the commission and shall be sold to an applicant
  at a cost as determined by the commission that is reasonable to
  defray the administrative costs incurred in connection with the tag
  requirement.
         SECTION 2.  Sections 66.111(a) and (b), Parks and Wildlife
  Code, are amended to read as follows:
         (a)  Except as provided by Subsection (b), no person may buy
  or offer to buy, sell or offer to sell, possess for the purpose of
  sale, transport or ship for the purpose of sale, or barter or
  exchange[:
               [(1)  freshwater crappie, bass of the genus
  Micropterus, striped bass and hybrids of striped bass, white bass,
  walleye, sauger, northern pike, muskellunge, trout of the family
  Salmonidae, flathead catfish; or
               [(2)]  any [other] fish taken from the public fresh
  water of this state.
         (b)  Subsection (a) does not apply to:
               (1)  [a fish, other than a bass of the genus
  Micropterus, reared in private water by an operator of a commercial
  aquaculture facility, as defined by Section 134.001, Agriculture
  Code;
               [(2)  a fish possessed legally outside this state and
  transported into this state;
               [(3)  bass of the genus Micropterus reared in private
  water by an operator of a commercial aquaculture facility, as
  defined by Section 134.001, Agriculture Code, and marketed for the
  purpose of stocking the water of this state;
               [(4)]  nongame fish regulated under Chapter 67 [of this
  code]; or
               (2) [(5)]  channel catfish of more than 14 inches in
  length or blue catfish of more than 14 inches in length taken from
  the public fresh water of Angelina, Bowie, Camp, Cass, Chambers,
  Franklin, Freestone, Gregg, Hardin, Harris, Harrison, Jasper,
  Jefferson, Lamar, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Marion, Montgomery,
  Morris, Nacogdoches, Navarro, Newton, Orange, Panola, Polk, Red
  River, Sabine, San Augustine, San Jacinto, Shelby, Titus, Trinity,
  Tyler, Upshur, or Walker County, the public fresh water of the
  Neches or Trinity River in Houston County, the public fresh water of
  the Colorado River in Bastrop, Colorado, Fayette, Matagorda, or
  Wharton County, or the public fresh water of Falcon Lake in Starr or
  Zapata County.
         SECTION 3.  Section 66.2012(e), Parks and Wildlife Code, is
  amended to read as follows:
         (e)  This section does not apply to activities that are
  regulated under the exceptions provided by Subdivisions (1), (2),
  and (5) [(3)] of Section 66.020(b) or under Subsections (f) and (g)
  of that section.
         SECTION 4.  Section 66.111(c), Parks and Wildlife Code, is
  repealed.
         SECTION 5.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.
 
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