National Saltwater Registration Question

Type: Chesapeake
Region: Northern
Location: Northern

My name is Larry Birchfield. I live in Harford County and I had an excellent January and February fishing for yellow perch on the Susquehanna River. We caught some of the nicest yellow perch ever. Some reaching over 14"! What a great fishery it has become.

I have a question on licensing that has become very confusing... On January 2nd, I bought my "boat sticker" license in a local chain sporting good store and they told me that I no longer need to register with NOAA, that the state will do it for me. As far as I could tell, I wasn't charged a NOAA fee.

Well, I would like to have people fish on my boat under my boat sticker license. Do they still need to register with NOAA and pay a fee?? If so, I think it is very confusing and think that this could lead to many violations. The sporting good store made it seem like it was no longer necessary since I bought the sticker...

Any guidance by DNR would be appreciated.

DNR RESPONSE via Paul Genovese Hello Larry, thank you for writing and glad to hear you're enjoying this year's yellow perch run.

Regarding the registry; if you purchase a license you are automatically registered for 2011. Person's who fish on your boat by way of the boat decal however will indeed need to register. However, the registry is free as long as they do it through Maryland and not through the federal web site. The Maryland Saltwater Registry web site is http://dnr.maryland.gov/swregistry.asp a link to it can also be found from most Fisheries web pages (http://www.dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries).