Endangered Species - Protections and Prohibited Actions - South Carolina

(A) The department's responsibilities include the creation of a long-range and comprehensive beach management plan for the Atlantic Ocean shoreline in South Carolina. The plan must include all of the following:

(1) development of the data base for the state's coastal areas to provide essential information necessary to make informed and scientifically based decisions concerning the maintenance or enhancement of the beach/dune system; 

(2) development of guidelines and their coordination with appropriate agencies and local governments for the accomplishment of:...

(e) protection of endangered species, threatened species, and important habitats such as nesting grounds...

Citation: Code 1976 § 48-39-320.

(A) The board shall establish such programs, including acquisition of land or aquatic habitat, as are deemed necessary for management of nongame and endangered wildlife. The board shall utilize all authority vested in the department to carry out the purposes of this section.

(B) In carrying out programs authorized by this section, the department may enter into agreements with federal agencies, political subdivisions of the State, or with private persons for administration and management of any area established under this section or utilized for management of nongame or endangered wildlife.

(C) The Governor shall encourage other state and federal agencies to utilize their authorities in furtherance of the purposes of this section...

Citation: Code 1976 § 50-15-40.

...(7) “Take” means to harass, hunt, capture, or kill or attempt to harass, hunt, capture, or kill wildlife...

Citation: Code 1976 § 50-15-10.

...(C) Except as provided in regulations issued by the department, it shall be unlawful for any person to take, possess, transport, export, process, sell, or offer for sale or ship nongame wildlife deemed by the department to be in need of management pursuant to this section. Subject to the same exception, it shall further be unlawful for any common or contract carrier knowingly to transport or receive for shipment nongame wildlife deemed by the department to be in need of management pursuant to this section.

Citation: Code 1976 § 50-15-20.

...(C) Except as otherwise provided in this article, it shall be unlawful for any person to take, possess, transport, export, process, sell or offer for sale, or ship, and for any common or contract carrier knowingly to transport or receive for shipment any species or subspecies of wildlife appearing on any of the following lists:

(1) the list of wildlife indigenous to the State determined to be endangered within the State pursuant to subsection (A); 

(2) the United States' List of Endangered Native Fish and Wildlife as it appears on July 2, 1974, (Part 17 of Title 50, Code of Federal Regulations, Appendix D); and

(3) the United States' List of Endangered Foreign Fish and Wildlife (Part 17 of Title 50, Code of Federal Regulations, Appendix A), as such list may be modified hereafter; provided, that any species or subspecies of wildlife appearing on any of the foregoing lists which enters the State from another state or from a point outside the territorial limits of the United States and which is transported across the State destined for a point beyond the State may be so entered and transported without restriction in accordance with the terms of any federal permit or permit issued under the laws or regulations of another state...

Citation: Code 1976 § 50-15-30.

(A) It is unlawful for a person, or a group of individuals traveling in one vehicle, to remove, or attempt to remove from this State more than ten, either in one species or a combination of species, of the named species of turtles at one time with a maximum of twenty turtles of these species, either individually or in combination in any one year: yellowbelly turtle (Trachemys scripta), Florida cooter (Pseudemys floridana), river cooter (Pseudemys concinna), chicken turtle (Deirochelys reticularia), eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina), eastern painted turtle (Chrysemys picta), spiny softshell turtle (Apalone spinifera), Florida softshell turtle (Apalone ferox), and common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina)...

Citation: Code 1976 § 50-15-70.