Fishing licence in Puerto Rico

It is the authorisation the Secretary of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources grants to fish aquatic or semi-aquatic organisms in Puerto Rico’s jurisdictional waters. The Act declares public domain all aquatic and semi-aquatic organisms found in bodies of water that are not privately owned: they may be fished, used and traded freely, but subject to this Act and its regulations. Jurisdiction extends twelve miles from the low-tide line.

It depends on the licence type. The full-time, part-time and beginner commercial licences require having been a legal resident of Puerto Rico for the year before the application; the non-resident commercial one requires instead being a United States citizen; and the rental-boat recreational licence accepts either. The ordinary recreational licence requires legal residence in Puerto Rico for the previous year. Applicants for commercial licences must be of age, or under eighteen and submitting the authorisation the Department of Labour and Human Resources issues to minors to work. All applicants must demonstrate knowledge of the Fisheries Act and its regulations, and present trustworthy documents evidencing compliance with the requirements and the income they earn from commercial fishing.

• Every person fishing in Puerto Rico’s jurisdictional waters must hold the necessary licences and permits issued by the Secretary, save the exceptions the regulation provides (Article 6).Verified against the official source
• Licences and permits must be available for inspection at all times while the fisher is working or practising the activity, and are not transferable (Article 6).Verified against the official source
• Obtaining fishing licences and permits does not exempt the applicant from obtaining other permits required by Puerto Rico and United States government agencies (Article 6).Verified against the official source
• Minors under fifteen (15) accompanied by an adult holding a fishing licence are exempt from paying the fee (Article 5(j)).Verified against the official source
• Commercial fishers need, besides the licence, permits for common lobster and conch fishing, included in the licence voucher, valid one (1) year and lifetime for fishers aged sixty (60) or over (Article 7(B)).Verified against the official source
• Recreational fishers need, besides their licence, permits for common lobster, conch and billfish and swordfish, plus the special recreational fishing permits (Article 7(C)).Verified against the official source

• The application form for the licence type; on the recreational one it must include an undertaking not to sell or traffic the catch (Article 6).
• Trustworthy documents evidencing compliance with the requirements and, for commercial licences, the income earned from fishing (Article 6).
• For commercial applicants under eighteen, the authorisation the Department of Labour and Human Resources issues to minors to work (Article 6).

1. 1

   Step 1: Who needs a licence

   Article 6 puts it in one sentence: every person fishing in Puerto Rico’s jurisdictional waters must hold the necessary licences and permits duly issued by the Secretary, save the exceptions the regulation provides. Note that proviso, because the exceptions are not in the Act but in a regulation we did not read. The same sentence adds two conditions people forget: the documents must be available for inspection at all times while the fisher is working or practising this activity or sport, and they are not transferable. And a third: obtaining the licence does not exempt you from other permits required by Puerto Rico or United States agencies.

2. 2

   Step 2: The seven types and how long each lasts

   Article 6 develops them from A to G. The full-time commercial licence lasts four years, with a notable exception: fishers aged sixty or over, and people pensioned for disability, have the benefit of holding it for life, and that benefit is granted only on a renewal application. The part-time commercial licence lasts four years. The beginner’s lasts a maximum of one year, and if the fisher shows evidence they could not meet another category’s requirements during that year, it may be renewed for one more year, only once. The non-resident commercial licence lasts six months. The recreational one lasts a year. The provisional recreational fisher licence has a variable duration up to a maximum of six months. And the recreational fishing licence for rental-boat owners lasts as the regulation establishes.

3. 3

   Step 3: What puts you in one category or another

   It is not how much you fish: it is where your income comes from. Article 2 defines a full-time commercial fisher as the natural person who fishes for profit, earns fifty per cent or more of their total annual income from fishing and holds a licence to that effect. A part-time commercial fisher is one who fishes for profit and earns less than fifty per cent of their total annual income from fishing. And a beginner commercial fisher is one starting out in fishing for profit, or applying for a licence to fish commercially for the first time. A recreational fisher, by contrast, is one who fishes without profit, to recreate as a sport, for competition purposes or for their own consumption. That is why Article 6 requires presenting trustworthy documents evidencing the income earned from commercial fishing: the category has to be proven.

4. 4

   Step 4: The permits that sit on top of the licence

   Article 7 is the one most people overlook. Commercial fishers must hold, besides the licence, permits for common lobster fishing and for conch fishing; those permits come included in the commercial fishing licence voucher, last one year, and are lifetime for fishers aged sixty or over. Recreational fishers must hold, besides their licence, permits for common lobster, for conch and for billfish and swordfish, plus the special recreational fishing permits. And anyone engaged, wholly or partly, in capturing live aquatic organisms for scientific research, educational, exhibition, aquaculture, or aquarium fish marketing and possession purposes must apply for one of three permits: capture, import and export, or holding. Those three last a year.

5. 5

   Step 5: Fishing for a day without a licence: the incidental permit

   Article 7(D) creates a useful and little-known figure. Any person wishing to fish recreationally in areas the Department designates for that purpose, and under the custody and supervision of the officer in charge of those facilities, may obtain — if they lack a recreational fishing licence and meet the requirements the regulation establishes — an incidental fishing permit. It is issued, by express delegation of the Secretary, by the corresponding officer in charge or any other authorised person. And it has a clear limit: it lasts the day it is issued, at a cost to be determined by regulation. There is also a different exemption in the same article: people who hire the services of the holder of the recreational licence for rental-boat owners are exempt from the recreational licence requirement, though the fish caught must be included in the statistics.

6. 6

   Step 6: A closed season reaches your freezer

   It is worth reading the whole definition in Article 2(t) because it surprises. A veda is the prohibition the Secretary decrees when, in their opinion, corroborated scientific information advises it necessary to protect public health or restore a fishery. It may limit, partly or wholly, fishing in specific places, the use of fishing gear or methods, and the fishing of certain species wholly or at some stage of their life cycle, by species, by stage, by size or by quantity. And then it closes: every veda shall always cover fishing, transporting and holding in deposit, whether alive, dead or refrigerated, the aquatic resources it seeks to protect. That is, a closed season does not only forbid catching: it also forbids transporting and keeping. The Act does not publish the veda calendar, which lives in the regulation.

7. 7

   Step 7: What breaking it costs

   Article 14 sets the range and the counting unit, and the unit is what hurts. Violations of this Act or the regulations in force shall be punished with a fine of not less than one hundred dollars and not more than five thousand dollars per violation. And the same article clarifies what counts as a violation: each illegal catch constitutes a violation, and in the case of fishing gear, each item of gear in violation. Anyone who violates the regulation has the right to request an administrative hearing. Separately there is Article 13, which is a crime and not an administrative fine: it is forbidden to throw into any lake, lagoon, spring, river, stream, channel or watercourse in Puerto Rico oils, acids, poisons or any substance that kills or destroys fish, crustaceans or molluscs, and whoever breaches it commits a misdemeanour with a fine of not less than five hundred and not more than three thousand dollars.

8. 8

   Step 8: Your licence can be denied or revoked

   Article 8 names three grounds and no more. First, previous violations, by the applicant or by their representatives or agents, of any resolution, decision or order issued by the Secretary, or of any of this Act’s provisions or its regulations. Second, having presented false information in the application. Third, refusing to supply pertinent information the Department requires under this Act or its regulations. That third ground connects with Article 9, which obliges every fishing licence holder to supply statistical information on the totality of their fishing, catch or purchase, as the Department requires by regulation. Rendering statistics is not optional, and several of the licences ask for it as an entry requirement.

9. 9

   Step 9: Two things that are not this Department’s

   Worth separating so you do not knock on the wrong door. The first: aquaculture. Article 10 says it shall be promoted, developed and administered by the Department of Agriculture, and that DRNA may require the permits and endorsements needed to regulate that industry’s activities where they may impact aquatic environments; once the pertinent permits are granted, the aquaculturist may exploit the cultivated fish exclusively and privately. The second: enforcement on the water. Article 18 empowers DRNA’s Ranger Corps, or any other law-enforcement officer, to intervene in this Act’s enforcement, and Article 2(b) defines law-enforcement officer broadly: the Police of Puerto Rico, DRNA rangers, Ports Authority boarding officials, Customs Service agents, Coast Guard officials and the Municipal Guard where the infringement occurs.

Licences and permits are issued by the Secretary of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources. Article 5(j) also allows recreational licences to be issued at commercial establishments and at recreational fishing associations or clubs, a route many people do not know about. The incidental fishing permit of Article 7(D) is issued, by express delegation of the Secretary, by the officer in charge of the designated facilities. The Act publishes no addresses, telephones, forms or portals, and we do not guess government internet addresses.

• Believing the fishing licence covers lobster and conch: Article 7 requires separate permits for both.
• Thinking a veda only forbids fishing: it always covers fishing, transporting and holding in deposit, alive, dead or refrigerated.
• Lending your licence to someone else: they are not transferable and must be available for inspection at all times.
• Assuming the commercial category depends on how much you fish: it depends on whether fishing gives you fifty per cent or more of your total annual income.
• Believing a fine is a single one: each illegal catch constitutes a violation, and each item of gear in violation too.
• Taking for granted that at sixty the licence is automatically lifetime: it is granted only on a renewal application for the full-time commercial licence.
• Ignoring the statistics requirement: refusing to supply pertinent information is grounds to deny or revoke the licence.
• Thinking you must get the child a licence: minors under fifteen accompanied by an adult with a licence are exempt from the fee.
• Looking for the price in the Act: all fees are set by regulation and the Act publishes no figure.
• Believing the fishing licence covers everything: it does not exempt you from other permits required by Puerto Rico or United States agencies.
• Going to DRNA about aquaculture: Article 10 places it in the hands of the Department of Agriculture.
• Renewing the beginner’s licence twice: it may be renewed for one more year only once.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales (DRNA)

  DRNA

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov