Friends Of The Housatonic River

As many of you have heard already CT will now require a Saltwater fishing license. While the bill has been passed it has not yet been signed off on. In all likelihood it will be and will go into effect next week (June 15th) Like many area anglers, I am not personally against this license but believe that this money needs to be allocated to programs regarding fishery management, patrolling, safety and public access rather than into the states general fund.

I would love to hear your thoughts and views on this and encourage everyone to let their local and state officials know their feeling on this.

I have included an email I received from Bill Foreman from the DEP Fisheries Division so you could better understand what is going on:

Leon,

The bill passed by the State legislature that included a recreational marine fishing license contains an effective date of June 15th, 2009 for the license requirement. This bill, along with many others, has not yet been signed by the Governor (there’s lots of steps that each bill must go through on the way to becoming law). It is very likely that a saltwater recreational fishing license will be required beginning on June 15th, 2009, but there is always a slight chance of a delay in when any bill becomes law, especially at the end of a session when there are numerous bills to process. The marine license has been made available early by DEP’s Licensing and Revenue unit as a customer service, and can be purchased online (just like the existing hunting and inland fishing licenses, go to www.ct.gov/dep/fishing and click on the “online sportsmen licenses” link). The new saltwater license is also available at all current vendors and DEP offices where the existing freshwater fishing and hunting licenses are available. I have attached a pdf file of the list of vendors. Note that as the bill has not yet been signed by the Governor, it’s still not official yet. The license will be required to fish in the marine district or land marine species. The fee would be $10.00 for residents and $15.00 for non-residents. The license would be free for those residents age 65 and older, although they will have to renew annually. As with the freshwater license, those under 16 years of age do not need a license. Anglers on a party/charter boat registered as such in CT will be exempt from the license requirement while fishing from the party/charter boat. There are provisions for reciprocity with NY and the other northeast states. NY has also passed a saltwater license bill which becomes effective October 1, 2009, and RI currently has its own legislation pending. NY’s bill includes reciprocity with CT for Long Island Sound. The last version of RI’s bill included full reciprocity.

Bill Foreman

860-424-3868

CT-DEP Inland Fisheries Division

william.foreman@ct.gov