Gina C. Leggett: Licensed Marine Fisher(wo)man
Get your marine fishing license? #youcandothat
I have some great memories from my childhood of casting a line out in the bay on the South Shore of Long Island. I marveled at all of the different types of sea life I could see when I put my face close to the water's surface.
My family had a dinghy with a hole in it and we would take it out anyway and put our foot over the hole to stop the water from coming in. I feel like I just took this story in another direction, but
back to fishing.
Not my family's dinghy.
All of this boat and waterways talk for RP's May event has got me craving more time out in the ocean, on docks... having drinks at the Frying Pan - which I know isn't the same thing... and fishing.
For today's lunch learn, I'm going to walk you through obtaining your marine fishing license for New York City. It's free and enables you to fish for saltwater fish species in the marine and coastal district (see the map below) and fish for migratory fish of the sea (striped bass, American eel, Hickory shad - loves me some Hickory shad*..., American shad, and Anadromous river herring within tidal waters of the Hudson River and its tributaries, or waters of Delaware River or Mohawk River.
Steps to obtain your license (you'll be fishing by the end of the day!):
1. Make sure you're near a printer, it's hard to get a copy of your license after the initial registration (you need to send away for it).
2. Click through to the Department of Environmental Conservation website.
3. Create an account by following the instructions on the page.
4. Click "Get Licenses and Privileges" on the left-hand side of the page and select "Marine Registry".
5. Fill out the form and once submitted, you're good to go. Print your license on the spot!
Your license is good for one year.
*I don't know what Hickory shad is, but to be fair, I'd probably still eat it.