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Delaware Code Title 7. Conservation § 1802. Commercial license requirements;  restrictions

Current as of January 01, 2026 | Updated by Findlaw Staff

(a) It shall be unlawful for any person to initially sell or offer for sale 25 or more eels per day unless the person selling or offering such eels for sale has a valid commercial eel fishing license issued by the Department.

(b) It shall be unlawful for any person to fish for eels with commercial eel fishing gear in the tidal waters of this State unless the person has a valid commercial eel fishing license on board the vessel used to fish issued by the Department.

(c) It shall be unlawful to fish for eels for the purpose of initially selling such eels in nontidal waters within the State unless authorized to do so by the Department.

(d) A commercial eel fishing license shall be valid from January 1 through December 31 next ensuing.

(e) Application for a commercial eel fishing license shall be made on the forms provided by the Department.

(f) The fee for a commercial eel fishing license to take eels shall be $115 for residents and $1,150 for nonresidents.

(g) A licensee may designate a resident of such licensee's state as an alternate on his or her license application, who shall be approved by the Department to fish for eels with the licensee's commercial eel fishing gear in the event that said licensee is unable to fish his or her commercial eel fishing gear already in the water and capable of catching eels.

(h) It shall be unlawful for an alternate to any commercial eel fishing licensee to sell or offer for sale any eels without the written consent of the licensee and without prior notification to the Department.

(i) Any person issued a commercial eel license by the Department shall file monthly reports of their catch by area, effort and weight on forms provided by the Department.  The monthly report must be filed with the Department by 4:30 p.m. of the last working day of the month following the month for which the information contained in the report reflects.  Failure to abide with the filing requirement, set forth in this subsection, will result in:

(1) A warning issued by the Secretary, for the first failure to file;

(2) Suspension of the commercial eel fishing license by the Secretary for a period of up to 30 days or until such time as the report is filed, whichever occurs sooner, for the second failure to file;  and

(3) Revocation of the commercial eel license by the Secretary until such time when all reporting requirements are fulfilled in a manner acceptable to the Secretary, for a third or subsequent failures to file.

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Cite this article: FindLaw.com - Delaware Code Title 7. Conservation § 1802. Commercial license requirements;  restrictions - last updated January 01, 2026 | https://codes.findlaw.com/de/title-7-conservation/de-code-sect-7-1802/

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