The following definitions and their cognates apply to powers and administration of agencies charged with the conservation of marine and estuarine and wildlife resources:

(1), (2) Repealed by Session Laws 1979, c. 830, s. 1.

(2a)      (Effective July 1, 2023) Contracted licensing system vendor. – An entity that the Wildlife Resources Commission contracts with to build and maintain an enterprise system to support business functions of the Commission. These functions shall include the processing of vessel transactions the Commission is authorized to conduct by Chapter 75A of the N.C. Gen. Stat. and licenses, permits, or applications the Commission is authorized to issue under this Chapter.

(3)        Department. – The Department of Environmental Quality.

(4)        Executive Director. – Executive Director, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

(4a)      Fisheries Director. – Director, North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries of the Department of Environmental Quality who shall be qualified for the office by education or experience.

(5)        Inspector. – Marine fisheries inspector.

(5a)      Marine Fisheries Commission. – The Marine Fisheries Commission of the Department as established by Part 5D of Article 7 of Chapter 143B of the N.C. Gen. Stat..

(5b)      Marine Fisheries Inspector. – An employee of the Department, other than a wildlife protector, sworn in as an officer and assigned duties which include exercise of law enforcement powers under this Subchapter. All references in statutes, regulations, contracts, and other legal and official documents to commercial fisheries inspectors and to commercial and sports fisheries inspectors apply to marine fisheries inspectors.

(6)        Notice; Notify. – Where it is required that notice be given an agency of a situation within a given number of days, this places the burden on the person giving notice to make sure that the information is received in writing by a responsible member of the agency within the time limit.

(7)        Protector. – Wildlife protector.

(8)        Secretary. – Secretary of Environmental Quality.

(9)        Wildlife Protector. – An employee of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission sworn in as an officer and assigned to duties which include exercise of law-enforcement powers.

(10)      Wildlife Resources Commission. – The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission as established by Article 24 of Chapter 143 of the N.C. Gen. Stat. and Part 3 of Article 7 of Chapter 143B of the N.C. Gen. Stat.. ?(1965, c. 957, s. 2; 1973, c. 1262, s. 28; 1977, c. 512, s. 5; c. 771, s. 4; 1979, c. 388, s. 1; c. 830, s. 1; 1987, c. 641, s. 4; 1989, c. 727, s. 218(57); 1997-443, s. 11A.119(a); 1998-225, s. 1.1; 2015-241, s. 14.30(u), (v); 2022-74, s. 15.3(a).)