On Thursday, December 3 at 10 a.m., the New Jersey Senate Environment Committee will meet in Room 10 on the third floor of the State House Annex in Trenton. At the top of the day’s hearing agenda is Senate Bill 2194 sponsored by Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D-Cape May) and co-sponsored by Sen. Christopher “Kip” Bateman (R-Somerset), a bill which create a free recreational saltwater registry in New Jersey in order to comply with new federal fisheries guidelines for data collection.
As written S2194 would specifically direct the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), in consultation with the Marine Fisheries Council, to establish and implement a registry program for saltwater recreational anglers modeled on the registry program to be established by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
This bill will keep NJ in step with its reputation for investing in short term economic solutions. It will not provide the smart investment in the future of salt water fishing that a salt water license will provide.
New Jersey has between 800,000- 1.4 million NJ anglers depending on the year. That would generate about 40 million annually. New Jersey Anglers have lost about 100 million dollars of their far share of Federal excise tax funds due to the fact that New Jersey lacks a salt water license. Just this last year we lost millions of dollars in stimulus money and all the benefits to salt water fishing that went with it. Please take a look at states like Florida,SC and others that have had a Salt water fishing license in place for a minute.You will find excellent fishing and economic benefits that you will not find in NJ!! Why, because they have invested wisely in their recreation fishing resource via a salt water license. I am not surprised that the recreational fishing alliance {RFA}is opposed to a New Jersey salt water license as they always go for short term economic gain. It is time for New Jersey Anglers to invest in the future by supporting a salt water license. As the polls indicate NJ anglers would not mind kicking in a few dollars to improve their salt water fishing.
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