The angler has three mackerel in a bag, which he'll chunk up for bait
when he gets to the shore.
He says his name is Billy K. There might be more letters in his last
name, but he won't give them. "It's cool, man," he says, "it's Billy K.
That's how I'm known." Other people in Quaker Lane Bait & Tackle, in
North Kingstown, agree -- he's Billy K.
He's 40 years old, with expressive blue eyes and a deeply tanned face.
His arms are thin but muscular, the veins pressing from under the skin.
Like thousands of Rhode Islanders, Billy K. lives to fish for striped
bass from along the state's shoreline. Saltwater angling could even be
called the state pastime -- estimates of how many people enjoy fishing
Rhode Island coastal waters range from 50,000 to more than 300,000.
But the activity would become illegal without a license under a
money-generating proposal in the General Assembly.
"Booooo!" says Billy K. "No saltwater fishing licenses!"
Billy characterizes the legislative plan in terms that may be tolerable
in a bait shop, but cannot be printed in the newspaper.
The surprise legislative proposal, dropped into the budget endorsed last
Friday night by the House Finance Committee, would require saltwater
anglers to buy a fishing license, just as freshwater anglers do, at a
cost of $18 annually for a state resident, $35 annually for a
nonresident, or $16 for a three-day "tourist" pass.
If the saltwater licenses were structured like freshwater ones, they
would be required for anyone 16 or older. Elderly and disabled residents
could get free lifetime licenses.
The change, which would take effect July 1 if passed, was never the
subject of a public hearing.
Michael S. Bestwick, the president of Quaker Lane Bait & Tackle, says he
has been deluged with telephone calls from irate anglers.
"Everybody's talking about it," he said yesterday. "Some of them are
even getting mad at us. I feel like the Registry. I tell people, I don't
make the laws -- I'm trying to stop it, too."
House Finance Committee Chairman Paul Sherlock, D-Warwick, says the
license idea was among "a number of fees and license kinds of issues
that were put on the table as sources of revenue," though he would not
say by whom. The philosophy, he says, is one of "fairness."
"We have some people whose districts have a pond less than a
quarter-mile away from the shore and they have to buy a license for that
and not the shore," Sherlock says.
But the proposal is drawing criticism from more than just recreational
fishermen. The director of the state Department of Environmental
Management, Jan Reitsma, has warned budget writers that the move runs
counter to both the governor and department's positions.
Reitsma says one key problem is that the money raised would go into the
state's general fund, rather than a dedicated account to pay for fishing
habitat improvements, as freshwater license fees do. "It may be a good
thing if it can pay for better fisheries management," Reitsma says, "but
we're not going to support it if it's going elsewhere."
Reitsma also questioned whether failing to dedicate the money to
fisheries would clash with the department's federal grants, which come
with restrictions. He says it would take the department at least three
months to get a license system running, and would require a public
education campaign.
Stephen Medeiros, of Coventry, president of the Rhode Island Saltwater
Anglers Association, says anglers fear lawmakers are looking to grab
money from them "any chance they get."
Medeiros says, "I've gotten literally hundreds of e-mails coming from
not just Rhode Island but from people from Massachusetts and
Connecticut, saying, 'If they do this, I'm never coming to Rhode Island,
I'll move my boat out.' "
His group's 3,000 members are writing and calling state representatives.
Medeiros expected to deliver a petition with 3,000 signatures to the
House opposing the change; the signatures were collected at bait shops
around the state. Several lawmakers have promised to try to strike the
license provision, he says.
Bestwick has expressed his opposition in e-mails to Governor Carcieri
and House Speaker William J. Murphy, D-West Warwick. "A lot of people
fish," he warns the General Assembly. "You could get voted out of office
if you vote the wrong way."
There seemed to be more than $18 worth of opposition in the anglers
interviewed yesterday, which suggests that, for many, it's not about the
money.
"This is the ocean, for God's sake," says Kevin Rogers, 47, who stopped
casting yesterday at Beavertail State Park in Jamestown long enough to
say how much he dislikes the idea. The waves punish the boulder Rogers
is standing on. He doesn't seem to mind the spray.
Rogers is a sales associate at Wal-Mart. He's from Virginia, but says he
will be moving to Rhode Island in August.
"I can see having a fishing license for inland freshwater; those are
stocked waters. Someone has to manage it. But this? This is God's
territory; this is the ocean. Who's managing it?"
John Rainone, president of the Rhode Island Party and Charter Boat
Association, worries that even the publicity over the proposal will hurt
business on his Point Judith charter fishing boat, the L'il Toot.
"I've already had people call me up and say, 'How much is it going to
cost me now? Are you going to charge me an extra fee?' " he says. If it
passes, Rainone says, his customers will go "anyplace but here."
"The sorry thing about it is the money they're going to lose on tourism
and the economy . . . is going to far surpass what they think they're
going to make."
Of 21 states with coastlines, 12 require saltwater fishing licenses,
according to DEM research. The requirement is prevalent on the West
Coast and Gulf Coast and in the Southeast, but is not found in Eastern
states north of Maryland.
The Finance Committee is counting on the change to raise $2.2 million,
though it would be offset by $600,000 to be channeled to DEM to pay for
new staff and other costs. DEM revenue estimates for the proposed fee
are lower: $1.4 million.
Governor Carcieri spoke out against the proposal this week.
Whether the provision will remain in the budget is not yet known. Rep.
Kenneth Carter, D-North Kingstown, a House Finance Committee member,
says the license idea should "sleep with the fishes," and says that most
colleagues with whom he has conferred agree.
"Truthfully, it's being kicked around," was all Sherlock would say.
Says Medeiros: "I'm fairly confident, from what everyone's telling me,
it looks like this will die."
Billy K. accepts Bestwick's invitation to add his name yesterday to a
petition displayed on a glass counter filled with new fishing reels at
Quaker Lane Bait & Tackle.
Then Billy tries to explain what's so great about saltwater angling. You
just have to experience it yourself, he says. He leans back, battling an
imaginary fish on an invisible line, and recalls the time he hooked the
25-pound bass that snapped his rod in half. "I don't know who bled more,
me or the fish."
He went angling for seven hours on Saturday, and six on Monday. Leaving
the bait shop in midafternoon yesterday, he figures not to be home in
Cranston until 10 p.m., he says. With close to five bucks worth of bait,
he promises he'll catch at least two keepers.
"Don't take the water from us," says Billy K. "That would be a shame."
TAKE THE POLL:
What's your angle on the proposed saltwater fishing license and fee?
