New saltwater fishing license on its way?

Buy a federal license — that's what fisheries managers want from everyone who dips a rod for fun in Lowcountry tidal waters or offshore. Don't worry, the state says, it has you covered.

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration has proposed a "saltwater angler registration" for recreational fishermen, to help collect better counts of the fish caught, in order to set limits for those catches. The registry would give managers a pool of phone numbers to make surveys that are now done with random calls from coastal area phone books.

Because the catch includes species like shad or striped bass that travel back and forth inshore to offshore, inshore fishermen would be required to get the license too. NOAA proposes the registration start in 2009 without charge; but in 2011, the license would cost from $15-$25 — on top of state licenses that now run $10-$35 in South Carolina. Public comments on the proposal will be taken until Aug. 11.

It's not an idea that's going to win a lot of friends.

But South Carolina already requires saltwater licenses, except for fishing from the shore, and collects catch information. That might be good enough to exempt anglers here from the federal license. S.C. Natural Resources is working on a low cost "shore based angler's license" for the anglers who aren't licensed now, that would keep them from having to pay the full cost of a saltwater license.

Read more in tomorrow's edition of The Post and Courier.