New England to the Caribbean: Our East Coast Commercial Fishing Permits

If you have been thinking lately about starting your own fishing business, with a particular interest in the Atlantic ocean species, today is your lucky day: this article will guide you through everything you need to know about the East Coast Commercial Fishing Permits. From the compulsory USCG documentation to the corresponding state and federal regulations. Find out in the next few lines!

Differences Between State and Federal Waters

We will begin this article with the United States Coast Guard Documentation. They regulate the issuing of boating licenses and registrations at a federal level. Boats with a net weight of over 5 tons and used for commercial purposes, need to be registered within this administration.

Once this has been settled, it is now time to bring up the differences between state and federal waters.

The state waters are all of the freshwater reserves of a particular state plus the marine waters that compound the area along the coastlines, particularly from zero nautical miles up to three nautical miles from shore. They depend on the Department of Natural Resources of each state.

The federal waters, on the other hand, are managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They control the area that goes from the end of the state waters up to the beginning of the international waters. In other words, from 3 nautical miles from shore up to 200 nautical miles. They are divided into five different regions: Alaska, the Pacific islands, the West and South Coasts, and the Atlantic. These last two regions are the ones we care about in this article, as they have access to the east coast commercial fishing permits.

States From the East Coast that May Need the Permits

Maryland, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, along with the parts of New Jersey, New York, and North Carolina that drain into the Delaware and Chesapeake Bays. Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, and Tennessee are the states that comprise both the Atlantic and the South-east coast regions, and therefore the ones that will find the information useful. In the mentioned states, the permits you get will vary depending on your needs, as well as getting them for federal or state waters. Some of the most common east coast commercial fishing permits might help you catch, however the following species:

King mackerel, spiny lobster, smoothhound shark, gulf royal red shrimp, swordfish hand gear or South Atlantic golden crab, Atlantic bluefish, deep-sea red crabs, mackerels or squids, spiny dogfishes, monkfish, rock ship, black sea bass, scups, and Atlantic herrings. The most required permit is the Atlantic Tuna Longline Commercial Fishing Permit (Limited Access).

The Best Place to Get your East Coast Commercial Fishing Permits

These permits can be obtained from the corresponding authority of each jurisdiction. Another choice, if you would rather avoid dealing with that many government administrations, is to access the east coast commercial fishing permits fully online on our SSL-encrypted website. The Commercial Fishing Permits Center gives you peace of mind, knowing that your details will be kept safe while having our experienced staff overlooking your paperwork and therefore preventing you from incurring any mistakes.

Contact us today and get your business ready!