H.B. No. 1333
AN ACT
relating to the sale and purchase of certain fish.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Sections 66.020(b) and (c), Parks and Wildlife
Code, are amended to read as follows:
(b) This section applies to the possession, transportation,
sale, or purchase of any fish described by Subsection (a) without
regard to where the fish was taken, caught, or raised, but does not
apply to:
(1) the transportation or possession of fish taken,
caught, or raised outside this state and transported by common
carrier without being unloaded from outside this state to a point of
delivery outside this state;
(2) fish raised by being continuously fed a prepared
feed and sold by an operator of a Texas commercial aquaculture
facility, as defined by Section 134.001, Agriculture Code; [or]
(3) the sale of fish described by Subdivision (2) by:
(A) a licensed wholesale fish dealer;
(B) a licensed retail fish dealer; or
(C) a restaurant;
(4) bass of the genus Micropterus and crappie if the
fish are:
(A) reared in private water; and
(B) sold by an operator of a Texas commercial
aquaculture facility for the purpose of stocking:
(i) water of the state under a permit
required under Section 66.015(b); or
(ii) private water with the documentation
required under Section 134.018, Agriculture Code; or
(5) the lawful importation by the holder of a Texas
finfish import license into this state from another state or
foreign country or the exclusive economic zone of farm-raised red
drum, bass of the genus Micropterus, crappie, flathead catfish,
striped bass, white bass, or a hybrid of any of those fish that have
been continuously fed a prepared feed as a primary food source or
lawfully taken, caught, or raised blue marlin, jewfish, longbill
spearfish, muskellunge, northern pike, sailfish, sauger, snook,
spotted sea trout, tarpon, walleye, white marlin, yellow bass, or a
hybrid of any of those fish, if the fish are [transported or sold
when not alive and are] tagged, invoiced, packaged, and labeled
under regulations of the commission and if the license holder
complies with any requirements the commission may establish by
proclamation that the fish enter the stream of commerce for sale in
this state in a condition allowing ready identification of the
species, including a requirement that the fish come into the state
with the head and tail intact and tagged and a requirement that an
invoice accompany all imported fish regulated by this section
through each sales transaction, including transactions at the place
of the final sale to the consumer.
(c) Notwithstanding Subsection (b)(5) [(b)(3) of this
section], the commission may allow subsequent sale of lawfully
imported fish without the head and tail intact and without a tag if
the fish are labeled in a manner prescribed by the commission and
the tag when removed is destroyed. A tag, if required, must be of a
type prescribed by the commission and shall be sold to an applicant
at a cost as determined by the commission that is reasonable to
defray the administrative costs incurred in connection with the tag
requirement.
SECTION 2. Sections 66.111(a) and (b), Parks and Wildlife
Code, are amended to read as follows:
(a) Except as provided by Subsection (b), no person may buy
or offer to buy, sell or offer to sell, possess for the purpose of
sale, transport or ship for the purpose of sale, or barter or
exchange[:
[(1) freshwater crappie, bass of the genus
Micropterus, striped bass and hybrids of striped bass, white bass,
walleye, sauger, northern pike, muskellunge, trout of the family
Salmonidae, flathead catfish; or
[(2)] any [other] fish taken from the public fresh
water of this state.
(b) Subsection (a) does not apply to:
(1) [a fish, other than a bass of the genus
Micropterus, reared in private water by an operator of a commercial
aquaculture facility, as defined by Section 134.001, Agriculture
Code;
[(2) a fish possessed legally outside this state and
transported into this state;
[(3) bass of the genus Micropterus reared in private
water by an operator of a commercial aquaculture facility, as
defined by Section 134.001, Agriculture Code, and marketed for the
purpose of stocking the water of this state;
[(4)] nongame fish regulated under Chapter 67 [of this
code]; or
(2) [(5)] channel catfish of more than 14 inches in
length or blue catfish of more than 14 inches in length taken from
the public fresh water of Angelina, Bowie, Camp, Cass, Chambers,
Franklin, Freestone, Gregg, Hardin, Harris, Harrison, Jasper,
Jefferson, Lamar, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Marion, Montgomery,
Morris, Nacogdoches, Navarro, Newton, Orange, Panola, Polk, Red
River, Sabine, San Augustine, San Jacinto, Shelby, Titus, Trinity,
Tyler, Upshur, or Walker County, the public fresh water of the
Neches or Trinity River in Houston County, the public fresh water of
the Colorado River in Bastrop, Colorado, Fayette, Matagorda, or
Wharton County, or the public fresh water of Falcon Lake in Starr or
Zapata County.
SECTION 3. Section 66.2012(e), Parks and Wildlife Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(e) This section does not apply to activities that are
regulated under the exceptions provided by Subdivisions (1), (2),
and (5) [(3)] of Section 66.020(b) or under Subsections (f) and (g)
of that section.
SECTION 4. Section 66.111(c), Parks and Wildlife Code, is
repealed.
SECTION 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.
______________________________ ______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 1333 was passed by the House on April
14, 2023, by the following vote: Yeas 125, Nays 18, 2 present, not
voting.
______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 1333 was passed by the Senate on May
10, 2023, by the following vote: Yeas 30, Nays 0.
______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
APPROVED: _____________________
Date
_____________________
Governor