Coastal Conservation Association New York Recommends Improvements to Proposed Salt Water License

January 26, 2009

West Babylon, NY—In comments addressed to New York Governor Patterson and provided to other leading administrative and legislative officials, Coastal Conservation Association New York recently recommended several improvements to the recreational salt water fishing license proposed by the Governor last month.  Such comments are intended to help reshape the license proposal, which has been widely criticized by the state's salt water angling community, into something that will clearly benefit the marine resources and salt water fishers of the State of New York.

"The big issue is and will always remain the use of the funds," says Scott Emslie, CCA NY's State Chair.  "The current proposal provides that license revenues will be deposited in the general Conservation Fund.  That is unacceptable to CCA New York, and to just about everyone else who fishes in salt water.   We have recommended that all revenues from a salt water license be deposited directly into the Marine Resources Account.  Our members have made it clear that they support licensing salt water anglers, but only if all of the license revenues are dedicated to marine resource conservation and the enforcement of fisheries regulations."

In its letter to the Governor, CCA NY pointed out that New York's salt water fisheries were based on naturally-reproducing stocks of fish native to the waters of the state.  CCA NY argued that it makes more sense, from both a financial and an environmental perspective, to dedicate salt water license revenues to the conservation of native marine fish species, and the management of fisheries based on sustainable, naturally spawned fish populations, rather than to dump them into a fund used, in part, for the artificial reproduction of non-native species and the perpetuation of put-and-take fisheries that can't survive without perpetual hatchery support.

"New York's salt water fisheries are very different from those in fresh water," observes Bill Raab, CCA NY's President.  "We manage our salt water fisheries by constraining harvest to sustainable levels, and the imposition of whatever bag limits, size limits and seasons are necessary to keep landings under control.  But the research necessary to assess landing levels, to determine the health of each stock of fish and to calculate which regulations would best achieve conservation goals doesn't come cheap.  The Marine Bureau needs license money dedicated to the Marine Resources Account, in order to have a reliable and consistent source of funding for its day-to-day operations."

However, funding should not be the driving force behind every provision of the license bill.  Thought should also be given to the state's party and charter boat fleet, which are an important part of the downstate tourism industry.  The Governor's proposal would require that any person fishing on such boats would have to be individually licensed.  CCA NY believes that such a provision would be unduly burdensome, both to the tourists and the "occasional" anglers that make up a large portion of the party boats' customer base, and to the boats themselves, which would be forced to deal with the paperwork involved in selling licenses to their unlicensed fares.  The better approach, already adopted in many states, would be the creation of a separate "for-hire" license that would be purchased by the boat itself and cover all of its customers while on the vessel.  Failure to take such an approach could well discourage new and "once-a-year" anglers from fishing. 

"There is a real problem today with children not engaging in outdoor activities," notes Guy Zummo, CCA NY's Youth Committee Chair.  "We run a family fishing trip out of Captree each year, to encourage kids to go fishing and try to get non-fishing parents to think about taking their children out on the water.  Forcing non-fishing grandparents and soccer moms to buy a license just so they can take a young boy or girl fishing for four hours might well mean the end of the event; it would be so much easier and cheaper for them to just buy another video game."

The tourism issue also touches upon another aspect of licensing—that of reciprocity with other states.  The proposed license has very limited reciprocity provisions, which are restricted to specific, named bodies of water and differ depending on the residence of the out-of-state angler.  Such provisions may be acceptable on inland waters, where anglers cannot easily run their boat from lake to lake, but on the broad and connected waters of the coast, and when applied to anglers who travel widely in the course of a fishing day, they make little sense.

"Salt water fishermen travel to where the fish are," says Raab, "and the fish may move for miles over the course of a day, as tide and other conditions change.  If reciprocity is to be extended to anglers from neighboring states—and we believe that it should be—it should apply to them wherever they fish in New York waters throughout the course of a day.  Extending reciprocity to anglers from neighboring coastal states, regardless of where they fish along New York's coast, will only benefit New York in the end, as similar provisions would probably be extended to New York residents when neighboring states adopt licenses of their own." 

CCA NY hopes that state officials will make its suggestions part of the license package ultimately considered by the Legislature, and that a license that will truly benefit New York's salt water anglers is adopted in the current session.  CCA NY recognizes that not everyone supports a salt water fishing license, but notes that such a license, in some form, has been adopted by every coastal state in the continental United States, except for a handful of jurisdictions in the northeast.  It further notes that most sportsmen across the nation, whether anglers or hunters, have long embraced licensing as part of "doing their share" to help support the healthy fish and wildlife populations on which their sport depends, and sees no reason why the same philosophy shouldn't be applied in this case.

"We know that some people have fished for a long time in New York waters without the need for a license," explains Emslie, "and they don't want to start buying one now.  But times change, and realistically, we are going to have to start paying for either a state license or a federal registration in the next couple of years.  While they may grumble, most anglers ultimately don't care that much about paying $19 for a license, so long as the money is put back into salt water fisheries.  When you realize that the license proposal came out a month ago, and the only real resistance is being organized out-of-state, by a New Jersey association with some industry affiliates here in New York, you come to appreciate how readily a properly-constructed license will be accepted by New York's anglers."

"However," Emslie continues, "any license must provide real benefits for the salt water angler.  If it does not, CCA NY and anglers throughout the Marine District will oppose it.  We would rather pay a registration fee to the feds for a year or two, if it means getting a good license in the end, than see a bad license bill pass in Albany this session, and perhaps suffer the consequences for a generation."