Title 20.1, Game, Fish, Predators, and Boating

Notwithstanding section 20.1-04-12, a professional trainer may apply to and obtain from the department a permit designating a specific training area, not to exceed forty acres [16.19 hectares], as an exempt training area. 1. In the exempt training area, a professional trainer may…

Any person may kill any harmful wild bird in this state during daylight hours.

Any propane exploder or similar noisemaking device designed to ward off blackbirds which is located within one hundred sixty rods [804.67 meters] of an inhabited dwelling may only be used during the period between sunrise and sunset. Any person who violates this section is guilty…

The open or lawful season on pheasant and the open or lawful season on duck may not commence on the same weekend. Except as otherwise provided in this section for the opening of pheasant season for youth, the open or lawful season on pheasant may not open earlier than one-half ho…

Any person violating a provision of this chapter for which a penalty is not specifically provided is guilty of a class A misdemeanor.

Except as otherwise provided in section 20.1-02-28, a person may not hunt, harass, chase, pursue, take, attempt to take, possess, transport, ship, convey by common or private carrier, sell, barter, or exchange a big game animal except as provided in carrying out practices to alle…

Any district game warden may kill any unattended dog harassing or killing big game. No action for damages may be maintained against the person for the killing.

A person having a big game hunting license as prescribed in this title may take, kill, and transport, during the open or lawful season, one big game animal in this state. The open or lawful season on deer and antelope begins at twelve noon central standard time and on elk, moose,…

1. While hunting, pursuing, killing, taking, or attempting to take, or to aid in the hunting or taking of, any big game animal, an individual may not: a. Use any animal except: (1) Horses; (2) Mules; or (3) For the recovery of big game animals, dogs which must be: (a) Leashed and…

Proof that a person possessing a rifle, shotgun, trap, snare, artificial light, or other implement or equipment useful in the taking or hunting of big game animals was found, between sunset and sunrise, in and about territory where big game animals are frequently and usually foun…

Every person, while hunting big game, shall wear a head covering and an outer garment above the waistline, both of daylight fluorescent orange color, totaling four hundred square inches [2580.64 square centimeters] or more of solid fluorescent orange color, and both to be worn co…

Each person having a big game hunting license, immediately after killing a big game animal, shall affix to the animal's carcass a locking seal bearing that person's big game hunting license number. The director shall furnish the locking seal with each big game hunting license iss…

Any individual who is totally or partially blind and who holds a valid big game hunting license may be accompanied by and have a person designated on the license, who is otherwise qualified, to hunt big game for that individual except as provided by section 20.1-01-12.

The department may not adopt a rule or implement a policy prohibiting or restricting the use of supplemental feed on private property for hunting a big game animal.

Any person violating a provision of this chapter for which a penalty is not specifically provided is guilty of a class B misdemeanor.

No person may take, attempt to take, catch, kill, or destroy any species of fish in this state except as provided in this title. Any person who takes into possession and kills or destroys any paddlefish or pallid sturgeon in violation of this title is guilty of a class C felony.

No person may take, catch, kill, or have in the person's possession or under the person's control any fish smaller than that prescribed by the governor's order and proclamation. Any person catching a fish under the legal size limit shall immediately return it to the water with as…

No person, except as provided in sections 20.1-06-05 and 20.1-06-06, may set, use, or have in that person's possession, or transport other than by public carrier, any setnets, seines, setlines, or fishtraps. Violators are deemed to be in possession of a public nuisance, and the d…

The director, any person authorized by the director, or anyone contracting with the director, may kill or take fish from waters of this state in any manner prescribed by the director when in the director's judgment it is in the best interest of public fishing. All such fish must …

No person except as provided in sections 20.1-06-04 and 20.1-06-05 may lay, set, or use any drug, poison, lime, medicated bait, fishberries, dynamite, or other lethal or injurious substance whatever; or lay, stretch, or place any tip-up snare, trap, set, or trotline, wire string,…

1. A person may erect, have, or maintain on the ice in any waters of this state a fishhouse, used or to be used while ice fishing, or a dark house, used or to be used for spearfishing. Fishhouse and dark house owners are subject to the rules the director may adopt governing the c…

The governor shall provide by proclamation for the taking of fish by spearing through the ice from dark houses. Spearfishing seasons, and the species that may be taken, must be by established methods provided for in the governor's order or proclamation. A nonresident may spearfis…

No person, except as provided in section 20.1-06-05, may deposit any refuse or other matter which may prove harmful to fish or fish eggs, in waters wherein the state or federal government has deposited, or may deposit, fish, fish eggs, or fry, or in which fish naturally abound, e…

No sale, barter, or trading of fish abounding in any waters of this state shall be legal except that: 1. Persons authorized by section 20.1-06-05 may sell fish as directed by the director. 2. Any person, firm, corporation, or limited liability company peddling fish may do so only…

Fish abounding in the waters of this state, and legally caught out of state, may be possessed, transported, or shipped in state. Evidence they have been legally caught must accompany such fish. This does not apply to persons, firms, corporations, or limited liability companies th…

Any person operating a private fish hatchery is not subject to fishing seasons, limits, legal size restrictions, or other methods of taking fish as provided in any governor's proclamation. The director may adopt rules governing the operation of private fish hatcheries. No license…

Any person, firm, corporation, or limited liability company raising and owning any lawfully possessed fish, wild by nature, has the same property rights therein as enjoyed by owners of domestic fish. They are, however, subject to all rules adopted by the director regarding the in…

The director shall adopt rules to control and supervise the operations of minnow or other live bait wholesalers and retailers. The director shall issue a license to each wholesaler when the wholesaler has complied with the director's rules and has paid the appropriate annual lice…

Any person owning, erecting, managing, or controlling any dam or other obstruction across any river, creek, or stream within or forming the boundary of this state, at the director's direction, shall construct and keep in good repair, a durable and efficient fishway in the manner,…

No person may engage in the commercial taking, trapping, or hooking of turtles without obtaining a permit from the director, who may issue the permits at the director's discretion. The director shall designate the form of the permits, the areas or waters in which the permits are …

No person may engage in the taking of frogs for sale for human consumption or scientific purposes without obtaining a frog license from the director. No person may buy, job, take on consignment, or ship frogs without obtaining the appropriate resident or nonresident commercial fr…

Any person violating a provision of this chapter for which a penalty is not specifically provided is guilty of a class B misdemeanor.

Any person, firm, corporation, or limited liability company raising and owning any protected fur-bearing animal, or in possession of the pelt of any wild animal lawfully obtained, has the same property rights therein as enjoyed by owners of domestic animals. They are, however, su…

No person may hunt, shoot, trap, or take, in this state, any fur-bearer, except during the open or lawful season thereon as established under section 20.1-07-04 or 20.1-08-02.

1. The governor shall establish by proclamation an upland snaring season for the taking of coyotes. 2. No person may set or lay any snare for the purpose of taking coyotes on land belonging to another private person without receiving written permission from that person. 3. A pers…

A landowner or tenant or that person's agent may catch or kill any wild fur-bearing animal that is committing depredations upon that person's poultry, domestic animals, or crops, except a landowner or tenant or that person's agent shall notify and obtain the approval of the direc…

It is unlawful to molest or destroy the natural burrow, den, or retreat of any protected fur-bearer or to damage or injure the property of another while taking or attempting to take that fur-bearer. The governor, at the advice of the director, may by proclamation determine the ma…

No person may unlawfully: 1. Kill, take, attempt to take, possess, transport, accept for transportation, buy, sell, offer for sale, barter, or otherwise dispose of any fur-bearing animal or any part thereof. 2. Take or attempt to take any fur-bearer outside a regularly prescribed…

Any order or proclamation issued by the governor pursuant to this chapter has the force of law. Any person who violates a provision of such order or proclamation for which a noncriminal penalty is not provided for in the order or proclamation is guilty of a class B misdemeanor. T…

Whenever the governor, after investigation and recommendation by the director, finds: 1. That any species of wildlife for which an open season is provided, are in danger of depletion or extinction, or when necessary for proper protection during the propagating period, the governo…

The governor may not establish bag limits on upland game birds which exceed fifteen birds in the aggregate.

1. A gubernatorial order or proclamation under this chapter must prescribe, as to each species of wildlife named therein, the following: a. In what manner they may be taken. b. In what numbers they may be taken and possessed and may limit the numbers by sex. c. In what places the…

The governor may by proclamation provide for a season to hunt bighorn sheep in the manner, number, places, and times as the governor prescribes. Licenses to hunt bighorn sheep must be issued by lottery, except special allocation licenses issued under subsection 1 of section 20.1-…

The governor, through proclamation or executive order, may restrict the importation and disposition of the carcass or carcass parts of any animal in the family cervidae taken from any areas within states or provinces that have documented cases of chronic wasting disease in wild p…

In accordance with chapter 37-17.1, the governor may declare an animal health emergency upon determining that the wildlife of this state are at risk from diseases imported by foreign animals, a foreign animal disease, bioterrorism event, or an emerging animal disease. Upon the de…

The governor may by proclamation provide for a season to hunt moose in a manner, number, places, and times as the governor prescribes. Licenses to hunt moose must be issued by lottery, except as provided under subsection 8 of section 20.1-03-11, with only residents eligible to ap…