Governor
I believe you met well in vetoing the bill H6446 as amended on a principle you believe in which it is a birthright to able to fish in the saltwaters of Rhode Island. I believe that the Magnuson-Steven act took the right away which was sign into law by President Bush in January 2007. Rhode Island is unique because one of the best fishing spot for Striped Bass is off of Block Island which require all Recreational fishermen to cross a patch of Federal waters to fish Block Island. Thousands of RI fishermen will now have to purchase and register on the Federal Registry. Bill H6446 was not only seven dollar but had a reciprocity with any state willing to reciprocate. This would be New York, Connecticut , Massachusetts, and New Hampshire base on there legislations. The federal registry would be free 2010 but would have a fee in 2011 between $15 - $25 in 2011 and the Federal Registry because of Tenth Amendment has no reciprocity with the states.
If a Rhode Islander had purchase the license based on the bill you veto and he could fish from NY ,CT,MA ,NH and federal water for only $7. Now Fed-$15, NY-$15,CT-$60,MA-$10, and NH-$15 a total $115 that right One hundred and Fifteen dollars for each and every Rhode Islander fishermen that fish the New England water. Vetoing this bill will hurt the RI tackle shop because confusion would turn an lot away from fishing. The NOAA will place a broad scope on who should Register and many Rhode Islander who are law abiding citizen will not fish.
The data issue is very important we will be stuck with current method of Random Digit Dialing rather then phone book of fishermen All Recreational fishery manager will agree the phone book of fishermen would provide not only better estimate but would also improve precisions of those estimates. Starting in 2011 precision estimates will be directly tried to resources in the amount recreational fishery allocation because of Annual Catch Limit (ACL) and Accountably Measures(AM). We can now look forward in having larger reduction of allocation of fish for RI because of this veto this translate to less fish to catch .
You will have to deal with jurisdictional and authority issue with NOAA. They will be using Coast Guard , Port Agents and have the authority to commandeer State personnel for compliance issue. Although NOAA plan to educate the public at first what will you do when Thousands of RI Fishermen arguing the Tenth Amendment end up in federal court with fines.
Hundreds of individual went to dozen of meeting to design the best bill not only to meet the federal mandated that provided the least amount of economic impact possible to individual fishermen and tackle shop in the state. Some of the seven dollars with go to increase intercepts to lower the Precision estimate to increase future allocation of fish in the recreational fishery.
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