New bill requires permit for saltwater anglers

Whether you fish on a dock, boat, or directly from the land, a new law signed last week by Gov. Deval Patrick will require saltwater anglers to purchase an annual permit before they are able to cast out from the coast beginning in 2011.”The bill passed unanimously in the House and the Senate and it had broad base bipartisan support in the legislature as well as many recreational fishing leaders in the state. We appreciate the support of the legislators and the fishing public for the quick passage of the bill,” said Mary Griffin, the commissioner for the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game.The new law allows the Department of Fish and Game to impose an annual $10 permit fee that will provide revenue to pay for administrative costs, data collection, better fishery management and will help to improve public access to recreational fishing. It will be in compliance with the 2006 Magnuson-Stevens Act that requires a national recreational saltwater fishing registry in order to better manage coastal fisheries.”We met with about 25 recreational fishing leaders across the state for more than a year to talk to them about how they’d want to design a program in Massachusetts and they decided to have a state-run program with a lower cost,” Griffin said.The federal law, which requires anglers to begin registering in 2010, will charge between $15 and $25 for permits beginning in 2011 within states that have not constructed their own saltwater permit programs.”I’m sure there are fishermen who are not thrilled they will have to by a license, but I hope they will understand that a state-run license program at lower costs, where the benefits stay within the state, is preferable to a more expensive federal license where the benefits go elsewhere,” said Griffin. “When we developed the bill we wanted it to be responsive to fishermen’s needs and we thought having a five-member panel, with recreational fishing expertise, would provide good feedback on what kind of public access benefits and conservations public fishermen would be looking for.”The Marine Recreational Fisheries Development Panel will help determine how the revenue is spent. Recreational fishers will benefit from better public access through the addition of new boat ramps as well as improvements to existing facilities including better lighting and fillet stations, and will also allow the DFG to keep better records as to how many fish are being caught and where.