Governor Carcieri fishes for striped bass in July 2004 with Joe Pagano, of Cranston.

Providence Journal file / Ruben W. Perez

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Governor Carcieri, reversing more than a year of work by his own staff and the state’s largest recreational fishing organization, has vetoed a proposed $7 state license for saltwater fishing. He called it “excessively intrusive.”

Carcieri’s staff announced the veto Thursday morning. The new license was approved last week by the General Assembly and had been proposed during lengthy negotiations and hearings by the state Department of Environmental Management and the Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association.

“This is the Ocean State. It is a place where people have been free, up to now, to cast a line into Narragansett Bay without government intrusion. Why the proposed change?” Carcieri said in an explanation of his veto to the state Senate.

The governor’s action appears likely to trigger a confusing year for Rhode Islanders fishing in saltwater.

Because there is no state license, a federal mandate will require everyone here fishing past the 3-mile limit offshore or fishing for stripers or other anadromous fish anywhere in saltwater to sign up by Jan. 1 in a federal register. State conservation officers, federal fisheries enforcement people and the Coast Guard will be charged with enforcing the registration, which will be free in the first year. Also in the first year, violators will just get warnings.

But in 2011, the National Marine Fisheries Service will start charging for registration, possibly as much as $25, according to Gordon Colvin, head of the federal program. Also, Rhode Islanders won’t have the benefits of reciprocity when they fish in other states. They will have to buy out-of-state fishing licenses. Out-of-staters fishing in Connecticut, for instance, have to pay $60.

W. Michael Sullivan, director of the state DEM, said he thinks the governor raised legitimate issues, and the result is the state will now have a year to explore other options.

“This is a federal mandate, unfunded, changing a rich tradition and history. We’ll have a good, vibrant discussion about it,” Sullivan said.

Carcieri pointed out in a letter to the Senate Wednesday that the federal government wants the licenses to create a more accurate way of surveying fishermen and collecting data on fishing efforts. He wrote: “This is hardly a compelling reason or exigent circumstance warranting the imposition of any fee and licensing requirement on a Rhode Island citizen who occasionally takes his or her children fishing.”

The governor did not point out that his own state DEM negotiated the new license arrangement with Rhode Island fishermen as an alternative to taking part in a federal program. Federal fishery regulators want a database of fishermen so they can survey them about catches.

The state could have created a registry instead of licenses, and it didn’t have to charge any fees, Colvin said. Because of Carcieri’s veto, Rhode Island joins Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Virginia and Hawaii in being required to implement federal registrations, Colvin said. Some of those states are still working on state licensing.

The Rhode Island Saltwater Anglers Association reported on its Web site Thursday: “Saltwater License is dead ... Governor Carcieri vetoes the legislation. Rhode Island anglers will now be subject to federal registry at triple the fee and will have to purchase nonresident license to fish in neighboring states.”

Stephen Medeiros, president of the group, called Carcieri’s veto “a kick in the gut.”

The licensing and registration was mandated by passage of the Magnuson Act in 2006, Medeiros said. So, if Rhode Island wants to fight the measure, it will basically be taking on an act of Congress.

“I wish the governor had made this known before I spent about 1,000 hours working on it,” Medeiros said. “There’s been an awful lot of fallout over the stupid $7.”

Just two weeks ago, Robert Ballou, the DEM’s acting director of Fish & Wildlife, predicted the licensing bill would pass the General Assembly because he and the fishermen spent months discussing the issue and ensuring the lowest possible fee would be charged. He said he thought the licenses were “viewed positively by all the interested parties.”

The bill passed, 27 to 8, in the Senate, and 39 to 8 in the House.

Sullivan said the governor had always made it clear to him he was troubled by the licenses.

“Currently, the governor — and I don’t disagree with his position that this component of the Magnuson Act flies in the face of the Rhode Island Constitution — but DEM wasn’t going to challenge the federal law. So we worked out a compromise,” Sullivan said. “Now, we’ll go into the educational mode and be sure citizens are aware of the federal requirements.”

“It is an inconvenience, but it is free,” Sullivan said of the federal registration. “Then we’ll have until Jan. 2011 to consider options.”

plord@projo.com