Now the government needs to know who's fishing...you know so they can protect the fish from us...and collect another tax that will not improve our water quality or fishing access. Eventually I can see this morph into larger and larger fees, less people following the rules/respecting regulations, no improvements in water/habitat quality and eventually a cap on the number of licenses that can be issued...because it is the recreational anglers (ie. Middle class) who must foot the bill in order to enjoy a freedom that has existed since the very beginning! Words cannot describe how bad this will become. I can see the headlines of the future: Local angler keeps illegal fish without fishing permit resulting in closure of striped bass season. Or Research shows that no-fish zones are more effective than stricter quotas in protecting marine life.(Money for research comes from saltwater license fees!)
Letting the government tell us who/when/where and how we can fish is just the latest in a long line of intrusions that our ancestors would not stand for. What has happened to our collective will? Why do we stand for this when we all know that this will do nothing to protect the fisheries we love? Sorry for the rant but this is so much worse than I think most anglers are willing to admit. You give politicians and inch and they will take a yard. Once you open a door to a beast that desperately needs new sources of money it will never be closed..Our taxes continue to provide us with little and now we have to pay to fish our waters. Freedom is dying in this country and we are all too afraid to admit it.
Here is a helpful link to comply with the new regs. http://www.dec.ny.gov/permits/54950.html [Note: there is pending legislation that may delay the effective date of the implementation of the recreational marine fishing license until January 1, 2010.]
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