16 U.S.C. § 1860 — Civil forfeitures

(a) In general. A fishing vessel, including its gear, furniture, appurtenances, stores, and cargo, used in connection with or as a result of an act prohibited by section 1857, and fish taken or kept in that connection, are subject to forfeiture to the United States. This does not include an act for which a citation under section 1861(c) is a sufficient sanction. All or part of the vessel may be forfeited, and all the fish, or their fair market value, must be forfeited, through a civil case under this section. (b) District-court jurisdiction. A United States district court that has jurisdiction under section 1861(d) may, on the Attorney General’s application for the United States, order a forfeiture under subsection (a) or an action under subsection (d). (c) Judgment. After a judgment for the United States, the Attorney General may seize property or an interest declared forfeited that was not already seized under this chapter and for which no security was obtained under subsection (d). Customs-law rules about seizure, forfeiture, condemnation, disposition, sale proceeds, remission, and mitigation apply to seizures and forfeitures under this chapter unless inconsistent with this chapter. Officers or people designated by the Secretary perform the duties and exercise the powers that those customs rules assign to the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection or others. (d) Procedure. (1) An officer authorized to serve in-rem process issued by a court with section 1861(d) jurisdiction must either stop executing the process or release fish seized under it when a person claiming the property provides satisfactory bond or other security. The bond must require the person to deliver the property to the court on order without reducing its value, or to pay its monetary value on court order. If a condition is breached, the court may enter judgment on the bond against the principal and sureties. This paragraph does not require the Secretary to release seized fish, other property, or sale proceeds on bond, except in the Secretary’s discretion or under a court order. (2) Seized fish may be sold, with the proper court’s approval and direction, for at least fair market value. The proceeds must be deposited with the court until the matter ends. (e) Rebuttable presumptions. (1) Fish found aboard a vessel seized in connection with a section 1857 act are presumed to have been taken or kept in violation of this chapter, unless the presumption is rebutted. (2) Fish of a species that spawns in fresh or estuarine water and migrates to the ocean are presumed to be of United States origin when found aboard a vessel within that species’ migratory range during the applicable part of the year, unless rebutted. (3) A vessel shoreward of the United States exclusive economic zone’s outer boundary, or beyond every nation’s exclusive economic zone, with gear capable of large-scale driftnet fishing is presumed to be engaged in that fishing, unless rebutted.