(47) "Operator" means any person who is in charge of or directs or controls a fishing vessel, or for whose direct economic or financial benefit a vessel is being used, including the master, owner, and charterer.

(48) “Owner” in relation to a fishing vessel means any person exercising or discharging or claiming the right or accepting the obligation to exercise or discharge any of the powers or duties of an owner, whether on his own behalf or on behalf of another, and includes a person who owns the vessel jointly with any other person or persons and any manager, director or secretary of any corporate body or company that holds an ownership interest in the vessel.

“Person” means any natural person or business enterprise and includes, but is not limited to, a corporation, partnership, cooperative, association, the government of any of the four States, or any political subdivision thereof, and any foreign government, subdivision of such government or other entity.

(5) Every person who is a master, owner, charterer, agent or company established under the laws of the Federated States of Micronesia of a fishing vessel that transports an authorized officer, inspector or observer outside the fishery waters and, without having obtained prior consent from the Authority, causes him to disembark outside the territory or jurisdiction of the Federated States of Micronesia, shall be jointly and severally liable for a fine plus all costs of repatriation including board and lodging while out of the Federated States of Micronesia and direct transportation to the Federated States of Micronesia.

(1) For the purposes of this title, a Qualified Person is: (a) a person who is a citizen of the Federated States of Micronesia, or a corporation which is established in accordance with the laws of the Federated States of Micronesia or any of its States, wholly owned by citizens, whose principal place of business is in the Federated States of Micronesia; (b) a person holding a current and valid foreign investment permit duly issued by the National Government to operate a vessel in interstate or international commerce who or which has its principal place of business in the Federated States of Micronesia; or (c) the National and State Governments of the Federated States of Micronesia and their instrumentalities. (2) The Registrar shall require the production of satisfactory documentary evidence demonstrating that the owner is a Qualified Person and the vessel meets the requirements for registration. (3) Ownership of any share of a vessel by a person who is not a Qualified Person shall constitute cause for removal of the vessel from the Register and forfeiture to the National Government. (4) A vessel which has ceased to meet the requirements for registration under this chapter shall be struck off the Register. (5) Any person who is not a Qualified Person who purports to be a Qualified Person for the purpose of registering a vessel under this title commits a national offense punishable by a fine not exceeding $100,000 or imprisonment of not more than one year, or both.

(1) Where a person has an undisclosed and unregistered ownership interest in a Registered Vessel and another person is registered as owner, both shall be subject to all pecuniary penalties imposed on the owners of vessels, and proceedings may be taken against either or both of them, with or without joining the other of them.