(a) When authorized.--When the United States Fish and Wildlife Service or its successor certifies that the catch of shad in the Delaware River and Bay and their tributaries for the preceding year totals 500,000 fish, the executive director shall consult with the pertinent administrative and other officials of the states of New York, New Jersey and Delaware, constituting the Middle Atlantic Section of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, and with the technical advisers of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service or its successor and, after such consultation and on the basis of all the scientific evidence available to the commission through these and other sources, if the commission finds that a limited number of additional operators or increased units of gear may be licensed for the following season without impairing the annual yield of the fishery it may authorize additional licenses.

(b) Determining number of licenses.--In determining the number of additional licenses, the commission shall give due consideration to the findings of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service or its successor. The commission may enter into such administrative agreements with the pertinent administrative officials of any of the other states enumerated in subsection (a) as may be necessary to establish a joint limitation of licenses and such cooperative programs as may be deemed necessary for the re-establishment of the shad fishery of the Delaware River and Bay and their tributaries in such manner as to promote the maximum sustained annual yield therefrom.

(c) Notice of proposed additional licenses.--When additional units of gear are to be licensed, the executive director shall give public notice, by advertisement once a week for two successive weeks in at least two daily newspapers of the counties of the state bordering on the Delaware River, of the additional units of gear to be licensed and the areas where they may be operated, and shall state that applications may be received up to January 1 next succeeding the publication of the notice.

(d) Grounds for refusing license.--The executive director may decline to receive any application for an additional license when, after due notice and opportunity for hearing, he finds that the applicant is not qualified by character, experience, financial responsibility and equipment to conduct properly the fishing operation applied for, or when, after due notice and opportunity for hearing, he finds that it is necessary, in order to maintain the stability of the industry or prevent conditions leading to monopoly, to prefer the applications of new operators over the extension of the operations of previous licenses, or, in the licensing of extended operations, to prefer small over large operators.

(e) Time and method of issuance.--On January 1 of each year, the commission shall issue such additional licenses as may be authorized for that year under the provisions of this section, the recipients of such licenses and the locations of fixed nets to be chosen by lot from among the applications received whenever there are more applicants than available licenses or more than one applicant for any location.

Cross References. Section 7308 is referred to in section 7312 of this title.