46 U.S.C. § 55114 — Unloading fish from foreign vessels

(a) Prohibitions. Unless this section or a treaty says otherwise, a foreign vessel can't unload, at a U.S. port: (1) fish it caught on the high seas, or fish products made from that catch; or (2) fish or fish products it picked up on the high seas from another vessel that was fishing or processing fish. (b) Regulations on Obtaining Information. The Secretary of Commerce can write regulations to gather information about U.S. vessels transporting fish products for foreign fish-processing vessels to points in the United States. (c) Virgin Islands. (1) In general. A foreign vessel no longer than 50 feet can unload its catch of fresh fish (whole, or with heads, guts, or fins removed — but not frozen or otherwise processed) at a Virgin Islands port, for immediate local consumption. Fish unloaded this way can only be sold or transferred for immediate consumption; if there's no good evidence that a sale to a freezer or cannery's agent, representative, or employee is really for immediate consumption, it's assumed not to be. This doesn't stop the final consumer from freezing, smoking, or otherwise processing the fresh fish themselves. (2) Seizure, forfeiture, and penalty. Fish unloaded in the Virgin Islands that get kept, sold, or transferred outside what paragraph (1) allows can be seized and forfeited to the government. Anyone who keeps, sells, transfers, buys, or receives such fish owes the government a civil penalty of up to $1,000 per violation. That penalty or forfeiture can be reduced, changed, or dropped under section 2107(b). (d) Northern Mariana Islands. The ban in subsection (a) doesn't apply to the Northern Mariana Islands.