2007 Minnesota Statutes

97A.015 DEFINITIONS.
    Subdivision 1. Applicability. The terms defined in this section apply to this chapter and
chapters 97B and 97C.
    Subd. 2. Angling. "Angling" means taking fish with a hook and line. An "angler" is a person
who takes fish by angling.
    Subd. 3. Big game. "Big game" means deer, moose, elk, bear, antelope, and caribou.
    Subd. 3a. Bonus permit. "Bonus permit" means a license to take and tag deer by archery or
firearms, in addition to deer authorized to be taken under regular firearms or archery licenses.
    Subd. 4. Buy. "Buy" includes barter, exchange for consideration, offer to buy, or attempt
to buy.
    Subd. 5. Camp. "Camp" means the temporary abode of a person fishing, hunting, trapping,
vacationing, or touring, while on a trip or tour including resorts, tourist camps, and other
establishments providing temporary lodging.
    Subd. 6. Chub. "Chub" means shortnose cisco, shortjaw cisco, longjaw cisco, bloater, kiyi,
blackfin cisco, and deepwater cisco.
    Subd. 7. Cisco. "Cisco" means Coregonus artedii and includes lake herring and tullibee.
    Subd. 8. Closed season. "Closed season" means the period when a specified protected wild
animal may not be taken.
    Subd. 9. Commercial fishing. "Commercial fishing" means taking fish, except minnows, for
sale.
    Subd. 10. Commissioner. "Commissioner" means the commissioner of natural resources.
    Subd. 11. Condemnation. "Condemnation" means the exercise of the power of eminent
domain in the manner provided under chapter 117.
    Subd. 12. Contraband. "Contraband" means:
(1) a wild animal taken, bought, sold, transported, or possessed in violation of the game and
fish laws, and all instrumentalities and devices used in taking wild animals in violation of the
game and fish laws that are subject to confiscation; and
(2) wild rice and other aquatic vegetation harvested, bought, sold, transported, or possessed
in violation of chapter 84.
    Subd. 13. Conviction. "Conviction" means: (1) a final conviction after a trial or a plea of
guilty; (2) a forfeiture of cash or collateral deposited to guarantee an appearance of a defendant in
court, if the forfeiture has not been vacated or the court has not reinstated the trial within 15 days
after the forfeiture; or (3) a breach of a condition of release without bail.
    Subd. 14. Dark house. "Dark house" means a structure set on the ice of state waters that is
darkened to view fish in the water beneath the structure.
    Subd. 14a. Deer. "Deer" means white-tailed or mule deer.
    Subd. 15. Designated trout lake; designated trout stream. "Designated trout lake" or
"designated trout stream" means a lake or stream designated by the commissioner as a trout
lake or a trout stream under section 97C.005.
    Subd. 16. Director. "Director" means the director of any or all of the Divisions of
Enforcement, Fisheries, Wildlife, and Ecological Services unless a specific division is identified.
    Subd. 17. Division. "Division" means any or all of the Divisions of Enforcement, Fisheries,
Wildlife, and Ecological Services unless a specific division is identified.
    Subd. 18. Enforcement officer. "Enforcement officer" means the commissioner, the director
of the Enforcement Division, or a conservation officer.
    Subd. 19. Firearm. "Firearm" means a gun that discharges shot or a projectile by means of
an explosive, a gas, or compressed air.
    Subd. 20. Firearms safety certificate. "Firearms safety certificate" means the certificate
issued under section 97B.015 or an equivalent certificate issued by another state or other evidence
that meets with the requirements of section 97B.020.
    Subd. 21. Fish house. "Fish house" means a structure set on the ice of state waters to provide
shelter while taking fish by angling.
    Subd. 22. Fur-bearing animals. "Fur-bearing animals" means mammals that are protected
wild animals, except big game.
    Subd. 23. Game. "Game" means big game and small game.
    Subd. 24. Game birds. "Game birds" means migratory waterfowl, ring-necked pheasant,
ruffed grouse, sharp-tailed grouse, Canada spruce grouse, prairie chickens, gray partridge,
bob-white quail, wild turkeys, coots, gallinules, sora and Virginia rails, mourning dove, American
woodcock, and common snipe.
    Subd. 25. Game fish. "Game fish" means walleye, sauger, yellow perch, channel catfish,
flathead catfish; members of the pike family, Esocidae, including muskellunge and northern
pike; members of the sunfish family, Centrarchidae, including largemouth bass, smallmouth
bass, sunfish, rock bass, white crappie, black crappie, members of the temperate bass family,
Percichthyidae, including white bass and yellow bass; members of the salmon and trout subfamily,
Salmoninae, including Atlantic salmon, chinook salmon, coho salmon, pink salmon, kokanee
salmon, lake trout, brook trout, brown trout, rainbow (steelhead) trout, and splake; members of
the paddlefish family, Polyodontidae; members of the sturgeon family, Acipenseridae, including
lake sturgeon, and shovelnose sturgeon. "Game fish" includes hybrids of game fish.
    Subd. 25a. Guardian. "Guardian" means a legal guardian of a person under age 16, or a
person 18 or older who has been authorized by the parent or legal guardian to supervise the
person under age 16.
    Subd. 26. Hunting. "Hunting" means taking birds or mammals.
    Subd. 26a. In-the-round. "In-the-round" means fish with heads, tails, fins, skins, and scales
intact.
    Subd. 26b. Intensive deer area. "Intensive deer area" means an area of the state where
taking a deer of either sex is allowed and where multiple bonus permits are authorized.
    Subd. 26c. Immediately released or immediately returned to the water. "Immediately
released" or "immediately returned to the water" means that a fish must not be retained longer
than is needed at the site of capture to unhook, identify, measure, or photograph the fish. Placing
a fish on a stringer, in a live well, or in a cooler, bucket, or other container is not "immediately
released" or "immediately returned to the water."
    Subd. 27. License. "License" means a license or stamp issued under the game and fish laws.
    Subd. 27a. License identification number. "License identification number" means a
verification number issued under the authority of the commissioner in conjunction with the
electronic purchase of a license or stamp and valid until the license is received by the purchaser.
    Subd. 27b. Lottery deer area. "Lottery deer area" means an area of the state where taking
antlerless deer is allowed only by either-sex permit and where no bonus permits are authorized.
    Subd. 27c. Managed deer area. "Managed deer area" means an area of the state where
taking a deer of either sex is allowed and where one bonus permit is authorized.
    Subd. 28. Migratory waterfowl. "Migratory waterfowl" means brant, ducks, geese, tundra
swans, trumpeter swans, and whooper swans.
    Subd. 29. Minnows. "Minnows" means: (1) members of the minnow family, Cyprinidae,
except carp and goldfish; (2) members of the mudminnow family, Umbridae; (3) members of the
sucker family, Catostomidae, not over 12 inches in length; (4) bullheads, ciscoes, lake whitefish,
goldeyes, and mooneyes, not over seven inches long; (5) leeches; and (6) tadpole madtoms
(willow cats) and stonecats.
    Subd. 30. Minnow dealer. "Minnow dealer" means a person taking minnows for sale, buying
minnows for resale, selling minnows at wholesale, or transporting minnows for sale.
    Subd. 31. Minnow retailer. "Minnow retailer" means a person selling minnows at retail
from an established place of business.
    Subd. 32. Motor vehicle. "Motor vehicle" means a self-propelled vehicle or a vehicle
propelled or drawn by a self-propelled vehicle that is operated on a highway, on a railroad track,
on the ground, in the water, or in the air.
    Subd. 32a. Muzzle-loader season. "Muzzle-loader season" means the firearms deer season
option open only for legal muzzle-loading firearms, as prescribed by the commissioner.
    Subd. 33. Nonresident. "Nonresident" means a person who is not a resident.
    Subd. 34. Open season. "Open season" means the period when a specified protected wild
animal may be taken.
    Subd. 35. Person. "Person" means an individual only if used in reference to issuing licenses
to take wild animals, but otherwise means an individual, firm, partnership, joint stock company,
association, or public or private corporation.
    Subd. 36. Possession. "Possession" means both actual and constructive possession and
control of the things referred to.
    Subd. 37. Predator. "Predator" means a gray wolf, coyote, fox, lynx, or bobcat.
    Subd. 37a. Processing. "Processing" means rendering a species of aquatic life for food, bait,
or other purposes so that it is no longer alive.
    Subd. 38. Protected birds. "Protected birds" means all birds except unprotected birds.
    Subd. 39. Protected wild animals. "Protected wild animals" are the following wild animals:
big game, small game, game fish, rough fish, minnows, leeches, alewives, ciscoes, chubs, and
lake whitefish, and the subfamily Coregoninae, rainbow smelt, frogs, turtles, clams, mussels, gray
wolf, mourning doves, and wild animals that are protected by a restriction in the time or manner
of taking, other than a restriction in the use of artificial lights, poison, or motor vehicles.
    Subd. 40. Public access. "Public access" means an access that is publicly owned and
accessible to the public without charge.
    Subd. 41. Public waters. "Public waters" means waters defined in section 103G.005,
subdivision 15 .
    Subd. 41a. Regular firearms season. "Regular firearms season" means any of the firearms
deer season options prescribed by the commissioner that begin in November, exclusive of the
muzzle-loader season.
    Subd. 42. Resident. "Resident" means: (1) an individual who is a citizen of the United States
or a resident alien, and has maintained a legal residence in the state at least the immediately
preceding 60 days; (2) a nonresident under the age of 21 who is the child of a resident; (3) a
domestic corporation; or (4) a foreign corporation authorized to do business in the state that has
conducted a licensed business at a location within the state for at least ten years.
    Subd. 42a. Restitution value of the wild animals. "Restitution value of the wild animals"
means the total value of the wild animals taken in a violation based on:
(1) the values established under section 97A.345; or
(2) the values determined by the court under section 97A.341, subdivision 4, if the values are
not established under section 97A.345.
    Subd. 43. Rough fish. "Rough fish" means carp, buffalo, sucker, sheepshead, bowfin, burbot,
cisco, gar, goldeye, and bullhead.
    Subd. 44. Sale. "Sale" means an exchange for consideration, and includes barter, offer to
sell, and possession with intent to sell.
    Subd. 45. Small game. "Small game" means game birds, gray squirrel, fox squirrel,
cottontail rabbit, snowshoe hare, jack rabbit, raccoon, lynx, bobcat, red fox and gray fox, fisher,
pine marten, opossum, badger, cougar, wolverine, muskrat, mink, otter, and beaver.
    Subd. 46. Sunfish. "Sunfish" means bluegill, pumpkinseed, green sunfish, orange spotted
sunfish, longear sunfish, and warmouth. "Sunfish" includes hybrids of sunfish.
    Subd. 47. Taking. "Taking" means pursuing, shooting, killing, capturing, trapping, snaring,
angling, spearing, or netting wild animals, or placing, setting, drawing, or using a net, trap, or
other device to take wild animals. Taking includes attempting to take wild animals, and assisting
another person in taking wild animals.
    Subd. 48. Transport, transportation. "Transport, transportation" means causing or
attempting to cause wild animals to be carried or moved by a device and includes accepting or
receiving wild animals for transportation or shipment.
    Subd. 49. Undressed bird. "Undressed bird" means:
(1) a bird, excluding migratory waterfowl, pheasant, Hungarian partridge, turkey, or grouse,
with feet and feathered head intact;
(2) a migratory waterfowl, excluding geese, with a fully feathered wing and head attached;
(3) a pheasant, Hungarian partridge, turkey, or grouse with one leg and foot or the fully
feathered head or wing intact; or
(4) a goose with a fully feathered wing attached.
    Subd. 50. Undressed fish. "Undressed fish" means fish with heads, tails, fins and skins intact,
whether entrails, gills, or scales are removed or not.
    Subd. 51. Unloaded. "Unloaded" means, with reference to a firearm, without ammunition
in the barrels and magazine, if the magazine is in the firearm. A muzzle loading firearm with a
flintlock ignition is unloaded if it does not have priming powder in a pan. A muzzle loading
firearm with percussion ignition is unloaded if it does not have a percussion cap on a nipple.
    Subd. 52. Unprotected birds. "Unprotected birds" means English sparrow, blackbird,
starling, magpie, cormorant, common pigeon, chukar partridge, quail other than bob-white quail,
and mute swan.
    Subd. 53. Unprotected wild animals. "Unprotected wild animals" means wild animals
that are not protected wild animals including weasel, coyote (brush wolf), gopher, porcupine,
striped skunk, and unprotected birds.
    Subd. 54. Waters of this state; state waters. "Waters of this state" and "state waters"
include all boundary and inland waters.
    Subd. 55. Wild animals. "Wild animals" means all living creatures, not human, wild by
nature, endowed with sensation and power of voluntary motion, and includes mammals, birds,
fish, amphibians, reptiles, crustaceans, and mollusks.
History: 1986 c 386 art 1 s 2; 1987 c 149 art 1 s 2-6; 1988 c 588 s 1; 1990 c 391 art 8 s 21;
1991 c 254 art 2 s 25; 1992 c 462 s 4,5; 1993 c 269 s 4,5; 1994 c 623 art 1 s 20,21; 1Sp1995 c
1 s 15-17; 1996 c 410 s 22,23; 1997 c 216 s 77; 1997 c 226 s 12-14; 2000 c 463 s 22; 2002 c
270 s 1; 2002 c 323 s 2,3; 2004 c 215 s 1; 2005 c 104 s 1; 2005 c 146 s 6,7; 2006 c 214 s 20;
2006 c 281 art 1 s 20; art 2 s 10-16; 2007 c 131 art 1 s 19,20