Recreational fishermen engage in fishing either from the shore or from a river bank or through a water vessel. Fishing is a very common activity in coastal areas. As compared to fishing from the shore, fishing from a vessel provides more opportunity for catch a wide variety of fishes.
Licensing your recreational fishing boat
One needs to obtain licensed boat for recreational fishing activities, such as line fishing, spear fishing, catching crabs and catching octopuses.
Licence holders are permitted to utilize trigger traps to catch octopuses in accordance with a trial exemption, while there are many rules regarding the use of this particular gear. One such rule is that a person cannot run more than six trigger traps at a time. A person who has a boat and jetski licence can operate a watercraft.
An individual is required to hold a good boat licence even if he or she is returning the caught fishes to the water. Even for transporting the fishing gear or the catch through a powered water vessel from any land-based location, licence is required. The licence must be presented when a Fisheries and Marines Officer requests for the same.
However, there are certain cases when a recreational licence is not required. For instance, while using a non-powered boat, such as a row boat, for fishing it is not needed. Similarly, when fishing is being done from a fishing charter boat or a licensed fishing tour operator’s vehicle, it is not required. If a person engages in a fishing activity for which they have a valid current licence, then they are not required to hold any recreational boat fishing licence.
A valuable advantage of the database of boat fishers is that it helps to decide who are fishing, in which area they are fishing, and what type of fish they are catching. The information which is obtained helps to manage and regulate the fisheries. Licence for recreational fishing boat is provided for a span of twelve months from the day of issue. It can be bought for thirty dollars or fifteen dollars in case of concession. The licence can be purchased or renewed either online or from the Department of Fisheries offices. The licence was first introduced in 2010 and since then its sale has fetched more than seven and a half billion dollars for the development and management of recreational fishing of the state. The funds generated from the licenses are spent on various incentives for the welfare of the recreational fishers.