Top on the list of new revenue is a harvester’s registration fee of $215 that will be charged to all commercial watermen, except fishing guides or seafood dealers. “That’s brand new,” Blackistone said.
The fee will bring in nearly $1.2 million from the state’s 5,400 commercial watermen.
Costs for most licenses will increase and new permit fees will be charged to bring in an additional $400,000. For instance, costs associated with a limited crab catcher license, which allows a watermen to set up to 50 pots and trotlines, will go from $60 to $335 a year. There are 2,886 such licenses issued this year.
My guess is that a lot of those licenses are not used much, and by increasing the costs, a lot of those "commercial" fishermen will drop out of the fishery. And I'm OK with that.
The license currently costs $50, plus a $10 seafood marketing surcharge. Starting next season, that same crabber will pay $100 for the license, $20 for the seafood marketing surcharge and $215 for the new harvesters registration fee. For licenses allowing up to 600 pots, the cost will rise from will go from $170 to $250 while the licenses for up to 900 pots will change from $190 to $300 a year. An oyster harvester license will double from $50 to $100, as will a resident fishing guide license.
That, on the other hand, seems like a reasonable cost increase to cover the costs of administering the fishery. Those costs should be readily absorbed by serious commercial fishermen. Even the DNR realizes that many of the license holders are part-time, and only use the commercial licenses as a source of side income, or to allow them to exceed recreational limits to share with family and friends.
“This is a lot of money for a lot of the smaller part-time watermen,” Blackistone said. “It’s just another cost on top of a hard way to make a living. But they have to pay their fair share.”
Pat Norris of Ridge is one of those part-time watermen, and in addition to holding his own 300-crab pot license works with his brother. He said many watermen aren’t aware about the hit they will have to take when they reapply by the end of August for next year’s licenses.
“I can see going up [in fees], but not doubling,” Norris said, adding that the increased fees should have instead been phased in over a several years.
Of course, the rates have not been raised since 1994, practically a generation ago.
maryland sucks!
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