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[QUOTE=BasicPatrick;720449][B][I][COLOR="Blue"]
To suggest that a license is merely a "notion" or is "about to" anything is what is ignorant. The reauthorization of the Magnuson Stevens Fisheries Act which requires all anglers be counted passed in 2006. That was THREE YEARS AGO. The delay of implementation that if I recall correctly and the search feature of this site will confirm you did not see coming was caused by the presidential election and resulting turnover within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) but make no mistake about it the license is coming. You can shout and pout all you want but it is already done and the adults amongst us are trying to prevent our monies from paying for the turnpike, big dig and whatever agenda inspired you to post here.
I don't have a dog i this fight, I don't live in or fish in MA, but the above statement is a bunch of B.S. that the proponents of a state saltwater license have been pushing since the MSA was reauthorized. The MSA does NOT require a license of any kind. It requires a "registry" but only of those anglers that fish in federal waters or fish for andromonous fish. For all practical purposes that is only striped bass fishermen. But the politicians have seen the $$$ signs on the wall and are hell bent to get it before Washington can.
Ask yourself this, if the states did NOTHING how could the feds enforce this? Anyone casting a plug or soaking a bait could simply claim to fishing for bluefish, flounder, fluke, scup, sea bass or any other species besides striped bass. The only guys that would have to worry are guys who fish from boats out past the three mile limit and even many of them would have been exempt because they had a HMS permit, which would exempt them from the registry.
Anyone who supports a state salt water license is either woefully misinformed or a supporter of a state permit for anything and everything.
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