Title 16ConservationRelease 119-73

§6906 Prohibited acts

Title 16 › Chapter CHAPTER 88— - WESTERN AND CENTRAL PACIFIC FISHERIES CONVENTION › § 6906

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

You cannot break the rules or permits under this fishing law or use a fishing boat when its permit is suspended or taken away. You must let authorized officers board your vessel for inspections and you cannot stop, attack, block, scare, bribe, sexually harass, or otherwise interfere with those officers, observers on the boat, or data collectors. You cannot resist arrest, help someone avoid arrest, give the Secretary of Commerce false information (including false yearly processing-capacity numbers), fail to keep or give required catch records, refuse to stop when hailed by an official, fish in ways that violate regulations under section 6905(a), or buy, sell, transport, or possess fish taken in violation of these rules. If fish are offered for entry into the United States, the Secretary of Commerce must get proof that those fish are allowed in under section 6905(a).

Full Legal Text

Title 16, §6906

Conservation — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)It is unlawful for any person—
(1)to violate any provision of this chapter or any regulation or permit issued pursuant to this chapter;
(2)to use any fishing vessel to engage in fishing after the revocation, or during the period of suspension, of an applicable permit issued pursuant to this chapter;
(3)to refuse to permit any officer authorized to enforce the provisions of this chapter to board a fishing vessel subject to such person’s control for the purposes of conducting any search, investigation, or inspection in connection with the enforcement of this chapter or any regulation, permit, or the Convention;
(4)to forcibly assault, resist, oppose, impede, intimidate, or interfere with any such authorized officer in the conduct of any search, investigations, or inspection in connection with the enforcement of this chapter or any regulation, permit, or the Convention;
(5)to resist a lawful arrest for any act prohibited by this chapter;
(6)to ship, transport, offer for sale, sell, purchase, import, export, or have custody, control, or possession of, any fish taken or retained in violation of this chapter or any regulation, permit, or agreement referred to in paragraph (1) or (2);
(7)to interfere with, delay, or prevent, by any means, the apprehension or arrest of another person, knowing that such other person has committed any chapter 11 So in original. prohibited by this section;
(8)to knowingly and willfully submit to the Secretary false information (including false information regarding the capacity and extent to which a United States fish processor, on an annual basis, will process a portion of the optimum yield of a fishery that will be harvested by fishery vessels of the United States), regarding any matter that the Secretary is considering in the course of carrying out this chapter;
(9)to forcibly assault, resist, oppose, impede, intimidate, sexually harass, bribe, or interfere with any observer on a vessel under this chapter, or any data collector employed by the National Marine Fisheries Service or under contract to any person to carry out responsibilities under this chapter;
(10)to engage in fishing in violation of any regulation adopted pursuant to section 6905(a) of this title;
(11)to ship, transport, purchase, sell, offer for sale, import, export, or have in custody, possession, or control any fish taken or retained in violation of such regulations;
(12)to fail to make, keep, or furnish any catch returns, statistical records, or other reports as are required by regulations adopted pursuant to this chapter to be made, kept, or furnished;
(13)to fail to stop a vessel upon being hailed and instructed to stop by a duly authorized official of the United States;
(14)to import, in violation of any regulation adopted pursuant to section 6905(a) of this title, any fish in any form of those species subject to regulation pursuant to a recommendation, resolution, or decision of the Commission, or any tuna in any form not under regulation but under investigation by the Commission, during the period such fish have been denied entry in accordance with the provisions of section 6905(a) of this title.
(b)In the case of any fish described in subsection (a) offered for entry into the United States, the Secretary of Commerce shall require proof satisfactory to the Secretary that such fish is not ineligible for such entry under the terms of section 6905(a) of this title.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2015—Subsec. (a)(2). Pub. L. 114–81 substituted “suspension, of” for “suspension, on”.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

16 U.S.C. § 6906

Title 16Conservation

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73