§195D-8  Search and seizure.  Any officer or agent authorized pursuant to section 195D-7 shall have the authority to conduct searches as provided by law and to seize any equipment, business records, merchandise, aquatic life, wildlife, or land plant taken, possessed, transported, sold, offered for sale, or used in violation of any section of this chapter or any rule adopted hereunder, and any of the foregoing so seized shall be held by the department pending disposition of environmental court proceedings, or the department prior to forfeiture, may direct the transfer of aquatic life, wildlife, or land plants so seized to a qualified ichthyological, zoological, botanical, educational, or scientific institution for safekeeping, costs thereof to be paid by the defendant.  Upon conviction of the person or persons from whom the seizure was made, the environmental court shall declare the items seized forfeited to the State.  Such items shall be destroyed or disposed of in any manner as the department may deem appropriate. [L 1975, c 65, pt of §1; am L 1983, c 111, §9; am L 2014, c 218, §8]