FEES SUPPORT FISHERIES' MANAGEMENT

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 12, 1993                   TAG: 9302120525
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
FEES SUPPORT FISHERIES' MANAGEMENT
REGARDING Earl Johnson's Jan. 27 letter to the editor, "No justification for fishing fee":
The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries played no role in the legislative passage of the saltwater license. The Virginia Marine Resources Commission is charged with saltwater fisheries' management in the commonwealth and is the recipient of revenues derived from the saltwater-license sales. The Virginia Recreational Fishing Advisory Board has been established by the commission to provide direction for the expenditure of these recreational fishing revenues.
Given the game department's experience in the sale of hunting and freshwater fishing licenses and its statewide network of more than 600 license agents, it has coordinated with the commission on the printing, distribution and sale of the saltwater license. Additional coordination resulted in a combined freshwater and saltwater fishing-regulations pamphlet. Direct costs incurred by the game department for this coordination will be reimbursed from saltwater-license revenues.
Johnson correctly states that the game department had no justification to impose a saltwater-license fee on saltwater fishermen, and the department did not. However, consideration should be given to the benefits derived from a recreational fishing license as a funding mechanism for responsible management of fisheries. We see that in the good freshwater fishing we all enjoy, and now will see it in the recreational saltwater fishing of the Chesapeake Bay. BUD BRISTOW Director Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries RICHMOND

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB