(a) Animal means all vertebrate and invertebrate species, in any stage of development, including but not limited to mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, mollusks, arthropods, insects, and their eggs, larvae or young, but excluding human beings, dog or other companion animal defined in section 350 of the Agriculture and Markets Law.

(b) Commissioner means the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation as well as meaning the Commissioner’s designated agent.

(c) Department means the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

(d) Floating dock means a removable buoyant platform supported by floating devices or suspended over the surface of a waterbody by anchors or other devices.

(e) Invasive species means a species that is nonnative to the ecosystem under consideration, and whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.

(f) Launch means to place a watercraft or floating dock into a public waterbody or any inlet or outlet to such waterbody for any purpose, including by trailer or other device or carrying by hand a watercraft into the waterbody.

(g) Launch site means the specific location along the shoreline of a public waterbody where a watercraft or floating dock is launched.

(h) Marine and coastal district waters means the waters of the Atlantic Ocean within three nautical miles from the coast line and all other tidal waters within the State, including the Hudson River up to the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge.

(i) Nonnative species means a species not indigenous to an ecosystem under consideration or to New York State, and includes an individual specimen.

(j) Person means any individual, firm, co-partnership, association, or corporation, other than the State or a public corporation, as the latter is defined in article 2A section 66 of the General Construction Law.

(k) Personal watercraft means a vessel which uses an inboard motor powering a water jet pump as its primary source of motive power and which is designed to be operated by a person sitting, standing, or kneeling on, or being towed behind the vessel rather than in the conventional manner of sitting or standing inside the vessel.

(l) Plant means all plant species, in any stage of development, including, but not limited to trees, shrubs, vines, grasses, sedges, rushes, herbs, mosses, lichens, as well as submergent, emergent, free-floating or floating-leaf plants, and includes any part of the plant.

(m) Public waterbody or waterbody means lakes, bays, sounds, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs, rivers, streams, creeks, estuaries, marshes, inlets, canals, the Atlantic Ocean within the territorial limits of the State of New York and all other bodies of surface water, natural or artificial, inland or coastal, fresh or salt, public or private (except those private waters which do not combine or effect a junction with natural surface waters), which are wholly or partially within or bordering the State or within its jurisdiction.

(n) Reasonable precautions mean intentional actions that prevent or minimize the introduction or spread of aquatic invasive species, as specified in section 576.3 of this Part.

(o) Watercraft means every motorized or non-motorized boat, vessel or vehicle capable of being used or operated as a means of transportation or recreation in or on water.