(a) The purpose of this chapter is to effectuate the State’s policy toward the management and conservation of coastal finfishery resources in cooperation with the federal government, local governments of this State and the governments of other states. This chapter provides the legal framework by which the users of this State’s finfishery resource can participate in the State’s responsibility of governing fishing for, and the taking of, finfish in a manner that is both biologically and socioeconomically sound.

(b) It shall be the policy of the State to manage tidal water finfisheries in accordance with the development and maintenance of a management strategy that perpetuates the historic significance of recreational and commercial fisheries with priority for development of interstate management plans given to those species that are of foremost interest to recreational fishers. These species shall include the weakfish, Cynoscion regalis, striped bass, Morone saxatilis, summer flounder, Paralichthys dentatus, bluefish, Pomatomus saltatrix, Atlantic croaker, Micropogan undulatus, porgy, Stenotomus chrysops, kingfish, Menticirrhus saxatilis, codfish, Gadus morrhua, seabass, Centroprists striata, and Atlantic mackerel, Scomber scombrus.

(c) It shall also be the policy of the State to manage tidal water finfisheries in accordance with management objectives that maintain optimum yields of fish, that provide a viable experience for recreational fishers and that provide sound business opportunities for commercial fishers and for those providing services to fishers. Management shall be accomplished in cooperation with the federal government, the governments of other states and local fishing interests. Management shall be biologically and socioeconomically sound.

(d) In recognition of these fishes as migratory species which routinely spend some part of their life in the territorial seas and interior waters of different coastal states and the fishery conservation zone (3-200 nautical miles), interstate fishery management plans for each species or group of closely related species may be developed by the Department in cooperation with other interested Atlantic coast states and the appropriate federal agencies in the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Commerce. The development of each interstate fishery management plan shall include an appropriate Delaware Citizens Advisory Committee whose membership shall consist of individuals who are residents of this State and shall represent the commercial and recreational interest for that fishery. Both the Citizens Advisory Committees and the Department shall abide by the following management principles in the development of an interstate fishery management plan:

(1) Fisheries management shall prevent overfishing while achieving on a continuing basis the optimum yield from each fishery;

(2) Fisheries management shall be based upon the best available scientific and socioeconomic information;

(3) Fisheries management shall, to the extent practical, manage individual stocks of fish as a unit in cooperation with other states and federal authorities throughout the range of fish;

(4) Fisheries management shall, to the extent practical, allocate or assign fishing privileges among fishers to conform to historic fisheries landing statistics and be reasonably calculated to promote conservation;

(5) If it becomes necessary to allocate or assign fishing privileges among the citizens of this State, such allocation shall, to the extent practical, promote efficiency in the utilization of fishery resources, except that no such measure shall have economic allocation as the sole purpose; and

(6) Fisheries management, to the extent practical, shall minimize costs and avoid unnecessary duplications.

64 Del. Laws, c. 251, § 1; 70 Del. Laws, c. 186, § 1.