http://www.app.com/article/20110508/NJNEWS/305080086/Fishing-registry-sponsor-calls-elimination-fines?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage
Kirk Moore - Staff Writer - Asbury Park Press
Anglers should not be threatened with $300 fines for failing to sign up for the new saltwater fishing registry, said state Sen. Jeff Van Drew, D-Cape May, a sponsor of the legislation that created the free angler registry.
“The very purpose of creating the free registry was to cut people a break,” Van Drew wrote in a letter today to state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin, urging a moratorium on first-offense tickets of $300 for failing to register.
Van Drew said he will immediately introduce legislation to mandate a warning on first offense and a $20 penalty if an angler is stopped a second time by conservation officers and still has not registered.
The $300 fine is set by the DEP’s code for marine fisheries violations, but it is “extreme” for a paperwork omission and the potential maximum for repeat offenders is “absurd,” Van Drew said.
The onset of registry requirements at the beginning of the fishing season is likely to snare people who are just unaware of the new system, he wrote.
Names, addresses and telephone numbers collected by the new registry will be used toward building a national directory of saltwater anglers, so the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration can conduct accurate surveys to see what kind of fish are being caught and in what numbers.
Registry proponents say more accurate data is critical to better manage fish species, and head off unjustified fishing shutdowns and severe catch cutbacks.
Registration is all online with the new system. Anglers can go to saltwaterregistry.nj.gov to learn about the system, sign up, and print out a registry certificate that must be carried when fishing by anyone 16 or older.
DEP officials say recreational crabbers don’t need to carry a registry form, nor do anglers who are fishing from for-hire party and charter boats that are already registered in the system.
