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Re: legal collecting


>In the state of Kansas, collecting for home aquaria apparently falls 
>under the umbrella of catching bait or game fish. The legal methods for 
>taking bait are stipulated in the fishing regulations and require a
valid 
>state fishing permit. Legal methods include:
>     seine less than 15 ft long & 4 ft deep, mesh not larger than 1/4
inch
>     fish-trap with throat less than 1 in diameter & mesh not larger
than
>    1/4 inch
>     fishing line,dip or cast-net with mesh less than 3/8 inch
>In addition, bait fish must be less than 12 inches and an individual 
>cannot possess more than 500 individuals. "Bait" is also tightly defined
to 
>include members of the minnow or carp family (Cyprinidae), sucker family
>(Catostomidae), top minnows or killifish family (Cyprinodontidae), 
>shad family (Clupeidae), and the sunfish family (Centrarchidae), 
>specifically EXCLUDING black basses and crappie. "Bait" also
specifically >excludes all Kansas and T & E species. Game fish may be
taken by a >variety of methods, but are subject to licence, creel
limits, and length limits. >Note that darters are not mentioned in
either of these categories. To the >best of my knowledge, the state of
Kansas requires a Scientific Collecting >Permit to take and hold fishes
that do not fall within the descriptions of bait 
>or game fish.
>---Kate Shaw

What I have had explained to me by KW&P officials is that you can keep
any fish that you want in an aquarium that can be legally taken under
bait and game fish regulations. Any fish you keep are considered part of
your creel limit. They look at it as if  rather than keeping your bait
fish in a minnow bucket or your game fish in a live well, you are
storing them in your aquarium.

One other note, it is illegal to capture a pair of wild fish, like green
sunfish, breed them and then sell their offspring as an aquarium fish.
You can however buy a pair of green sunfish from a legal bait dealer,
raise the offspring and sell them as a bait fish or for stocking
purposes.

The way the laws are currently written, you can legally go out and seine
500 Southern redbelly dace a day and then kill all of them by using them
for bait. Yet if a high school biology class places three or four
Orangethroat darters, captured on a field trip, in their classroom tank
they are technically law breakers.

Garold
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