BY DIETER BRADBURY

Portland Press Herald

Saltwater anglers will need a license to catch striped bass, alewife, pollock and other popular fish beginning in January 2010, under a rule issued Tuesday by the federal government.

The rule, which generated heavy opposition in Maine when it was announced last summer, is designed to create a national registry of recreational fishermen. The government will use the registry to study the effects of recreational fishing on fish stocks and gauge the economic value of saltwater angling.

No fees will be charged in 2010, but beginning in 2011, anglers will pay $15 to $25 for an annual federal license, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the agency responsible for managing fisheries in federal waters.

Under the rule, states can create their own licensing systems and keep the revenues they generate, as long as they share their information on saltwater angling with the federal agency.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources plans to submit a bill to the Legislature in January to create a saltwater licensing system, the agency's deputy commissioner, David Etnier, said Tuesday.

Etnier, a former legislator from Harpswell, said lawmakers have repeatedly rejected saltwater licensing proposals because of heavy opposition from the public.

"It's always been free and should always be free. That's a very heartfelt belief that folks have," he said.

But the legislative tide may swing this year because the federal government is giving the states no choice. David Farmer, deputy chief of staff for Gov. John Baldacci, said it may be better for Maine to set up its own system, than to let the federal government run a program and keep any revenues that are collected.

"The idea is to keep these resources in the state of Maine to allow them to benefit our fishery rather than the U.S. Treasury," he said.

Nationally, an estimated 15 million people fish in saltwater for recreation, but the federal fisheries agency says it needs better data to understand the impact of that fishery.

Of the 24 states with a federally regulated fishery, 16 have already established registration or licensing programs for saltwater anglers.

Those that haven't are located primarily in the Northeast -- Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. Hawaii also has no saltwater registry.

Federal officials have been meeting with state lawmakers and fishing groups in the region to explain the rule since it was initially proposed in June. Gordon Colvin, a federal fisheries biologist who is overseeing the licensing effort, said a number of states have begun discussing their own programs.

Some 500 public comments were submitted on the proposal last summer, and many came from the Northeast, where the opposition has been vocal.

"To a considerable degree it's an artifact of history," Colvin said of the criticism. His agency originally planned to launch the program next month but postponed implementation for a year to give states more time to put their own licensing programs into place.

Etnier, at the state marine resources agency, said licensing Maine's estimated 300,000 saltwater anglers would generate about $3 million a year. After administrative costs are paid, leftover money would go into a fund to protect fish habitat, improve public access and make other investments to benefit saltwater fishery, he said.

But the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine, a recreational fishing advocacy group, strongly opposes licensing of saltwater anglers and will work to defeat the idea, said Executive Director George Smith.

He said anglers aren't convinced that license fees would be used strictly to benefit the fishery, and there are less intrusive and cheaper ways to measure the impact of recreational angling.

"We agree the federal surveys are flawed and should be improved," he said. "But you don't need to charge every fisherman $25 to do a good survey."

Smith said his organization would work against the rule at the federal, as well as the state, level.

U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, serves as the ranking member of the Senate's fisheries subcommittee. Her spokesman, John Gentzel, said Tuesday that Snowe has not had a chance to review the rule yet.

"This has gotten a poor reception in the past, but it's never been driven so much by the federal government," said state Sen. Nancy Sullivan, D-Biddeford.

"Quite frankly, this isn't leaving us with a whole hell of a lot of choice."