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What kind of license does an Alien need to spear in USA ?

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Iyadiver

Mr. Long Post
Apr 22, 2002
998
74
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I am sometime confused by the term US immigration call foreigners : ALIEN. Hello........my name is ET...."Extra Thick" that is..........wha ha ha ha :D :D

Back to the question :
Say, I am a foreigner on holiday. Meet Kapiten Rig and charter his boat to one of the oil rigs to shoot fish. What kind of licence do I need ? Is there any different licence for US citizen and Alien ? I know in Guam, sportfishing is popular for Japanese tourist, is that the same licence alien spearo need ?

Do I need to report to MIB (Man In Black ) office for a spearing licence ?? :t

Mork,
From Planet Ork
 
If you are on a charter you need no licence...in louisiana you need $5 one...You are covered by the boat permits on a charter. I met divers from all over the world in Louisiana on Fri...Roberto Reyes came in from Puerto Rico to dive the lumps...
 
Hey Mork,

Referring to the US as a whole and not your example:

Every state has different regulations. Back in Hawaii, all Saltwater fishing/diving is free; however, here in Cali, I had to pay $30 for a general fishing license :( More for Salmon, more for Striped Bass, & a bunch more for an abalone stamp!!! :waterwork

Basically, you have to check with the individual state regulations since they vary greatly.

Most every state has a regulatory site as this one.
Fishing licenses can usually be picked up at most any fishing/diving store so no MIB office for you... though your pictures do pose a striking resemblance to that dog from MIB :hmm
 
Originally posted by fuzz
Every state has different regulations. Back in Hawaii, all Saltwater fishing/diving is free; however, here in Cali, I had to pay $30 for a general fishing license MIB :hmm

on a charter?????Thats insane. Do the boats have to have permits?
 
Well, if those money are coming back to the fisheries like I read...it is a fair deal. With the millions of anglers still catching fish in USA, me don't mind that kind of law.

I hope that's annual, seasonal or at least not for every single day of the trip.:confused: But if you guarantee me a trigger pull, just three times a day on a decent YF tuna, I'll pay that daily...:D :D

Here I am beginning to calculate my spearing expenses based not only on the underwater time spent but on how many times I can actualy pull my trigger on a decent fish.

1 of 20-30 min underwater with 1 possible trigger pull is good for me. 2 trigger pull is very good. 3 trigger pulll is excellent. 4 trigger pull..........that I am bullshitting you...never happened yet.

Thanks for the link Fuzz, will study that in detail if I ever save enough money to be the first/rare moron to scubahunt and hoover above Midnight Lump at 40-70 feet with Kapiten Rig while he is freediving.
 
if you come here, you will NOT have buy an extra permit. Thats why charter boats have to buy permits anually...it covers their clients. I have to have federal and state permits for both reef fish and palegics...
 
The link is just an example of California, not over in Rig's neck of the woods ;)
 
sounds like us redneck might do one thing right after all...I cant imagine making my clients have to buy another permit after they pay to charter the boat...Fuzz, did you get my PM?
 
Actually IYA, I found a loophole for you...just send me a certified check for US $100, and I'll get you hooked up...No problems.:D He He he

Matt
 
In Texas, anything more than 10 miles off shore is federal water, and no state license is needed. We got stopped by the coast guard once, and they almost gave my wife (who was an alien) to the boarder patrol. That is quite a story, but back to the issue, we have been checked out a couple of times at the dock by Texas Fish & Wildlife and their only question was did we catch them more than 10 miles out.

An alien may technically need a license in Gulf federal waters, but if you played dumb, I doubt anyone is going to ask you for it.

Just the *ell out of the way of ships leaving to the middle east with the military equipment on them. The coast guard is running along side of them and if you get close, they will probably shoot first and ask questions later.
Don
 
Looks like I will never enter the US again for a very long time. The current waiting list for newly issued US Visa for Indonesia is 4-5 months. Since my country population is majority Moslem it has become under one of the watched list.

Hell, I won't even want to fly 24 hours on a plane EVEN for free with first class sit.......... let alone wait that long for a Visa.

This terrorist shit is doing damage world wide. When will we have proper world peace ?? :head
 
ALIEN SPEARFISHING PERMIT

The process for aliens wishing to secure a permit to spearfish in the United States has been simplified.

Any qualified alien can secure a permit valid in all 50 States by
registering with the Men in Black.
 
Originally posted by donmoore
In Texas, anything more than 10 miles off shore is federal water, and no state license is needed.

Thats very odd. In most states you need state permits to land fish in their waters. For example, if I go offshore for Amberjack(which there are none in state waters)I better have a Mississippi permit. Louisiana is the same. So is Florida...:confused: If I leave Mississippi and go fish federal waters and go to port in Louisiana...I need Louisiana permits. Be careful with regs:head
 
That’s interesting. I have been checked twice and heard the same thing from many people. I’m pretty sure the Texas Fish and Wild Life web site says the same thing. Some things are just different in Texas.

Speaking of regs, did you know that you are supposed to have a license from the NMFS to catch yellow fin in the federal Gulf waters. Actually it’s the operator/owner of the boat, but its not just for charter and commercial. There are recreational permits too and the daily limit for recreational is 3 per person. There probably isn’t a recreational tuna fisherman in Texas that knows that! Other than, me because I just read it on their NMFS tuna web site.

Also the NMFS gives all the allowable methods of catching tuna, and spearfishing isn’t one of them. I suppose they don’t/didn’t know about freedivers. So if you spear a YF and get stopped by the feds, remember that big hole in it is side if from gaffing it, not your gun!
Don
 
You wont believe me but I actually knew that. Bet you didnt know that spearing ling is illegal in federal waters...check the NMFS. Most game officers dont even know that.;)
 
Holy Cow....so much regulation !!

I think if I stay in the US and live the life I do here, this will be the story.

Wednesday night or 3AM Thursday, Iya go to jail for exceeding alcohol level while driving 100 mph in a 40 MPH limit.

Thursday, some kind soul bail me out of jail.

Friday, Iya got fined for smoking in court waiting room for the case of that drunken driving & speeding.

Saturday, Iya got caught and fined by fishery officer for spearing in all the wrong places.

Sunday, again Iya got fined by the US Coast Guard cause he forgot to set the Y valve on the boat's head to holding take discharge while at the marina.

:D :D
 
I have some co-workers and they catch red snapper out of season, undersize amberjack, and anything else they want. They filet them on the boat and throw everything that can identify the fish, overboard.

I would never do it though, because: 1.) I have so much fish to eat, I’m worried about getting rid of it before the season starts again. 2.) I don’t want the worry – penalties are high. I read where they caught someone with 600lbs of snapper out of season and the court assessed a penalty of $18,000. 3.) I don’t want to give spearfishing a bad name.

IYA, you had better stay in Indonesia! Here is my story of my experience with the Coast Guard and I’m not even an alien from a Moslem country.

In July of 2001 I took my wife, who is Filipino, and a friend from work. It was a stormy day, but the forecast was for the storm to be north, so we went south toward Mexico. Got soaked on the way back, but never encounter more than 3’ seas. The Coast Guard was giving inspections that day, and with the storm, there weren’t many boats to inspect so they jumped on ours.

First question the Coast Guard asks, is do you have any weapons on board. Well it was my boat, and I knew I didn’t bring a gun, so I immediately said no. The next thing they wanted to know was were we went? When they found out we went south they got a little excited and called two more agents to assist them. Then they wanted our ID. When they found out my wife, who was not a citizen yet, and did not have her card or any id with her, they got even more excited and took her away from us.

Then they started going through the whole boat, removing seats, looking in our gear, etc.. One of them was going through my friend's bag when all of sudden he yelled “Gun!” At that time they went real crazy, two of them pulled their guns and they ordered us to get out of the boat and sit on the dock on our hands. I could go into more detail, but the ending results are below.

My friend who is a former special troops guy, who has seen more action than most men still alive, had gone camping the weekend before in a place know for trouble, because of drug and illegal alien smuggling from Mexico. He had put the gun in the bag the previous weekend and forgot to take it out. They were going to give my wife to the boarder patrol, but after the main officer questioned each of us individually and all three of our stories were the same, they gave her back to me with a stern warning about never letting her go anywhere again without her ID again.

Twelve hours on the water, two being held captive by the coast guard, then we had fish, boat, and gear to clean and put up, it was one long tiring day. Being a law abiding citizen my whole life and being held at gun point by an officer, really bothered me, until 9/11. Now I can appreciate what they do more.

Before 9/11 the coast guard in south Texas was mainly concerned about drug smuggling. Now its terrorism. Our local port has been one of the main ports in shipping military vehicles and supplies to middle east the past few months. You would not believe the quantity of stuff going out.

IYA, I invite you to go spearfish with Rig or anyone else from the board, except me! Just kidding!
Don
 
I heard US Coast guard being tough even on locals, especially when the waters is around a border to either illegal immigrant entry or drugs known country. Some stories like this get printed on a few boating magazine. Overall I think it is OK cause they in fact wants to make the lives of American safer, that I agree with you.

Its a wackie world we are living in now...........:head
 
hi

Ha Iya we can always out run the coast guard in our boat a lot of their boats only have 130hp outboards :cool:

cheers
 
Lucky you Ivan. In the US, the anti-drug cops even have special ordered Cigarette performance boats that can hit 90+ MPH, that was in the late 80's. The Coast Guard has choppers to chase people easy.

Here in my place, they probably travel less cause they got no money for fuel........wha ha ha ha.
 
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