The following article appeared in Tom Meade's Outdoor Notes column in the Sunday ProJo a couple of weeks ago.
Quoted in the article is George Allen, a member and officer of our club, the Newport County Saltwater Fishing Club as well as RISAA and a member of the advisory boards of
both ASMFC and RIMFC and George addressed this issue at our December meeting.
The way it stands now, RI fishermen who cross the border to fish will have to obtain a NONRESIDENT license from those states, which is $60 in CT, $15 in NY and as yet undetermined in MA, last I heard.
RI is under a Joint Enforcement Agreement with the Feds and has accepted grants and funding which will commit RI DEM EPO's to assisting in enforcement.
The USCG will be enforcing as well. If you fished BI by boat last year you undoubtedly saw the Coasties patrolling the Zone. If you were boarded for a boat safety check last season - or know someone who was - be sure you are carrying a license in 2010 if the USCG comes alongside and you have bass in your fishbox.
What could have been the best possible outcome of an attempt to gather information to give us better data on the real health of the SB fishery with a State license has been turned into something that is FUBAR by Governor Chooch using the Fisherman's Rights of the RI Constitution as the basis for his veto.
Those rights, first granted to the colonists of RI by King Charles in 1663 and the basis of that section of our state Constitution, guarantee ACCESS to the shore for fishermen, NOT freedom from regulation.
Way to go, Guv...
Outdoor Notes: Lack of saltwater fishing license to hurt R.I. anglers
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Members of Rhode Island’s largest recreational fishing group are expressing their disappointment over Gov. Carcieri’s killing a $7 saltwater fishing license.
Three members of the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association — which represents 6,500 anglers — have written critical articles in the group’s most recent newsletter, edited by RISAA’s president, Steve Medeiros.
Medeiros was a key figure in drafting legislation that would have established a $7 annual license that would have been accepted in the waters of neighboring Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York — all of which will have their own saltwater licenses in place next season.
“I think most of us have heard the phrases ‘stabbed in the back,’ ‘blind-sided,’ or, as Steve Medeiros put it, ‘kicked in the gut,’ ” said George Allen, a longtime advocate for saltwater fisheries and chairman of RISAA’s legislative committee.”
During his second term, President George W. Bush, a recreational fisherman himself, signed federal legislation requiring fisheries managers to collect solid, scientific information about recreational fishing before regulators established new fishing rules. The National Marine Fisheries Service asked coastal states to establish angler registries so scientists could telephone anglers and speak to fishermen directly.
Coastal states that did not have saltwater fishing licenses established them. New York and the New England states agreed to honor one another’s licenses.
Now that Gov. Carcieri has vetoed a $7 state license, Rhode Island fishermen will have to obtain a federal license, but it will not be honored in neighboring states, said Mike Bucko, a Tiverton resident who owns a tackle store in Fall River. A member of RISAA and federal and local fishing-advisory groups, he said a Rhode Island fisherman who also fishes in neighboring states and New Hampshire will have to pay $115 or more for licenses beginning in 2011, when the federal government starts charging $15 to $20 for a federal permit.
Bucko said the governor’s veto “will also hurt Rhode Island tackle shops because confusion will turn a lot away from fishing.”
“Rhode Islanders and fishermen have not come out on top on this [issue],” said RISAA member Dave Monti. “I say the veto on the fishing license bill in Rhode Island was a bad decision.”