ggffrr11 said:
The best thing to do is to "not get a license". If the authorities pull up to your boat, hand the fishing rod off to someone else on the boat. Then, go down below. That's important: remember to go down below. If you have to come back up again, then act like you don't know anything about it. Then, ask if they'll let you keep the rod/reel as they haul off the law breakers.
I know that is a joke and we have fished many times without any documentation. We stopped all that cold when they took the guy's boat. Even if it is "just a rental". Having the boat confiscated will be a nightmare for you and a long list of other people.
"ST. THOMAS - A U.S. diplomat traveled to the British Virgin Islands this week, asking top leaders to consider granting clemency to a U.S. Virgin Islands sport fisherman imprisoned for fishing without a license in BVI waters.
Clyde Howard Jr., U.S. Consul General at the U.S. Embassy in Barbados, met with BVI Gov. David Pearey and Premier Ralph O'Neal on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the case of St. Thomas resident Richard Baker."
Baker, 54, has served six weeks of his 12-month sentence in Tortola's Balsam Gut prison. The sentence was handed down after he was unable to pay the $46,000 combined fine he received for unlicensed fishing and illegal entry.
Baker and his common-law wife, Deborah Barton, had been relaxing on their boat Sept. 24 with two fishing lines and artificial lures trailing behind them when enforcement officers boarded the vessel. The couple said they had not caught any fish and did not know they were in BVI waters.
The maximum fines for fishing without a license are more than 100 times greater in the BVI than an the USVI - $500,000, compared with $400.
At least two other USVI fishermen, Adin Kauffman and Ishmael Hodge, also have received fines of at least $30,000 this year for fishing in BVI waters without a license.
And in 2002 and 2003, a series of U.S.-registered boats found fishing in BVI waters were seized, causing public outcry and leading to lost business for the charter boat operations involved.
Howard called the BVI law, which doesn't distinguish between penalties for commercial and sport fishermen, "flawed.""
