Nothing yet, I'm going to call again tomorrow. We are sailing out of Navigar witch is at Village Cay, so I guess if the guys have to walk over to the government building on Monday, our sleepabord night, that is what they will have to do.

Colleen,

Did you use the fishing license application and credit card authorization forms from the bvi.gov.vg website and send both of them to the fisheries.gov.vg email address? I am asking this question because the credit card authorization form says to email the completed form to CFD@GOV.VG. We will be there in two weeks and I am running out of time. I just want to be sure I am doing it the right way.


Thanks,
Bill

I was told the CFD email is no longer in use. Send everything to the new email fisheries@gov.vg

I sent mine out from my home email this past Sunday, but I have not heard back. I do plan on calling them tomorrow, unless I get a reply before that time.

I reached out to Sail Caribbean Divers who said that they could obtain the temporary 30 day license. I specifically inquired about the requirement for the immigration stamp. Their response is below but it seems that for the temporary license you don't need the immigration stamp.

----------------------------------------------

"They only require this if you request the actual permit. For me to process them I receive a permit number which allows you to fish.
Any further action would be directly from the fisheries department and then they require your proof of entry."

Regards,

Kina
Sail Caribbean Divers
(284) 541 3483

Thanks TC42 for the info. It’s good to know that we can fish once we get the permit number. The bigger issue is the lack of response from the Fisheries Department. Orange_Burst (Colleen) emailed thiers on the 13th of March to the new email address and I emailed my three applications on the 19th of March with no response. I emailed TMM who we are chartering with and asked if they knew any reason for the delay and their response was;
“The BVI recently had a new Prime Minister elected and there is a lag in filling Government positions, including someone in the new Government to oversee the Fisheries Department, and hence, sign off on fishing licenses”.

I’m still hoping to get my permits by the start of our charter on the 6th of April. I will be calling them in the morning........

Bill

Bill--we're also starting 4/6 from TMM. Call Sandra at the base. She called Fisheries for us late last week and spoke with someone who told her we will get our permit number this week sometime. You might get the same response by calling direct but, if not, Sandra is a great resource.
Eric

Thanks Eric! I will call Sandra if I can’t get a response at the Fisheries. We are on the boat Finish Line and we are doing a sleep aboard Friday night. Where do you get your bait? A couple of years ago I got frozen squid and ballyhoo at Richardson Rigging that is just up the road from the Pub not far from TMM.

Bill

We used frozen ballyhoo from Richardson Rigging a few years back but didn't catch anything. So we're using lures only now.

We're on Serengeti--no sleep aboard. Stop by and say hello if you get a chance.

A ballyhoo with a plastic squid hood is my go to trolling bait at 5 KTS.
A yellow feather with a big red eye is my most effective lure over the years here.
Of course I have caught more barracuda than I care to count.

Just rec'd an email from Fisheries with the approved permit numbers.

That is encouraging, I will wait another day, if I don't have mine, I will give them a call.

Today I called the Fisheries Department and after being transferred to three different people I ended up with a wonderful women named Abby. I explained to her that I had sent 3 separate emails for 3 different fishing permits a week ago with no response. She searched through her past emails and could not see any of my emails. After searching for 10 minutes she realized that she had received my 3 requests. Abby spent another 10 minutes reviewing each application, signatures, passport photos, credit card authorizations, vessel name and registration number. She then sent me a email to confirm that there was not any problems with their email on their end. At the end of our conversation she told me that I would receive our fishing permit numbers within the next 24 hours. Abby was EXTREMELY helpful and a pleasure to speak with. I highly suggest that anyone trying to get a fishing permit to contact Abby at 1 (284) 468-2700.

Bill

Soooo, it sounds like any of the original email addresses still work?

No, the new correct email address for fishing permits is;

fisheries@gov.vg

Bill

Thanks for the update. Got to submit our forms here in a couple weeks...

So has anybody actually gotten the license with either email address?

KFQ

Yes we received ours one week before our trip. We just finished our trip and we caught several barracudas, king fish and small tunas on ballyhoo.

We also got ours about a week before our trip, and we caught what Bill caught but we were dragging lures.

We didn't get the actual license, but they gave me numbers, if we were stopped, I just needed to give them those numbers.