Back in the 60’s and earlier when I lived on the East coast, a person didn’t need a state fishing license to fish in salt water. This included the ocean and tidal areas. My experience includes Florida and New York. At the time I was told that the Federal Government had control of these areas and that’s why no license was required.
I’ve not been saltwater fishing for maybe 20 years or more. Recently I was informed that a Florida fishing license was required for all fishing, including charter boats.
What prompted the change? Did Florida decide that could use the money? Are all coastal states now doing this? Did the Feds relinquesh jurisdiction?
Not sure about why the change occurred. I’m sure the conservation and regulation efforts needed more money. Since there are no state taxes to raise, this seems like a logical solution.
But a fishing license is not required for all fishing. If you are fishing from the land, or a bridge, you dont need one. You’ll need one on a charter boat, but not on a recreational boat that has it’s own license and doesnt charge a fee.
I guess that doesn’t really help… but FYI anyway.
While I don’t doubt that this may be a rule in FL, I would be interested to see where and how the rule is enforced. In any event, this is not universal in all East coast states.
I imagine it’d be difficult to fairly allocate or delineate recreational permit fishing zones in the Northeast, particularly in/around islands & bays.
AFAIK, New York still doesn’t require a license to fish in it’s salt water areas (around Long Island).
The main reason licenses aren’t required is because there is little danger of overfishing saltwater areas by recreational fishermen. OTOH, lakes don’t have as large a fish population, and it’s harder to get fish back into them, so you want some regulation.
There may be some regulations for taking shellfish, though.