New NY Fishing Rules for 2024 Focus on Saving Surfcasters

Important new rules are going into effect to help save the fishing industry in New York in 2024. They were announced in Albany on Monday, January 1, and will, after a deliberate delay, be signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul on April 1. This will give everyone 90 days to take the necessary measures to comply with the changes.

“The new rules are designed to reverse the catastrophic drop in the number of surfcasters during the last 20 years,” said Alice Broadbottom, a spokesperson for the New York State Environmental Protection Agency. “Twenty years ago, we began requiring surfcasters to buy state fishing licenses. They were made available at bait and tackle shops and an annual fee was involved. But after many surfers protested, saying fishing in the ocean should be free, it was decided to continue the license requirement but to drop the charge. What has it accomplished? The numbers over the years now show the decline in the surfcaster population. It is a cause for alarm.”

We must prevent surfcasters from going extinct. We’ve done turnarounds for turtles, piping plovers, least terns and sharks, so we know how to save surfcasters. Here are the new laws.

New NY Fishing Laws for 2024

Tagging the Surfcasters: All those getting the free surfcasting licenses at authorized bait and tackle shops will have an orange location tag clipped to their right earlobe. As a result, authorities in Albany will be able to track the whereabouts of every surfcaster and thus be able to shower these important personages to various amenities explained below.

Raising Funds for Surfcasters: Before April 1, special stores will be staffed and opened around the state where the general public can come in, buy a ticket, and then see a map on the computer where surfcasters are located. They will also be able to track where the surfcasters have been, by day, week, month or year. Ticket income will be split 50-50 with the surfcaster being followed.

Privacy Protection for Surfcasters: All surfcasters will be identified by their license number. However, members of the public who follow them will be able to name them. Thus surfcaster No. 2433 could be named “Clarence” or “Happy.” Whatever. Join the fun.

Feeding the Surfcasters: Licensed surfcasters will receive extra food and drink while surfcasting. A special new state tax of 0.01% on all real estate transactions greater than $2 million will create the necessary funding to load up such items as beer, tuna fish sandwiches and donuts purchased by the state at local delicatessens and bake shops every morning onto special food trucks that will roam the beaches looking for surfcasters every day to hand out food and drink for free.

Protecting the Surfcasters: One of the most successful species-saving operations has been the work done by the EPA over the years to protect the piping plover birds. Snow fencing put out on the beaches by state volunteers, docents and interns surrounds plover nests on all ocean beaches where they are found, to make them off limits to humans between April and August when the young, after hatching, fly away.

As a result, even though this has inconvenienced thousands of beachgoers, the piping plover population has tripled during the last five years and is no longer considered endangered. They are now only on a concerned list.

New snow fencing will now protect surfcasters on the beach the same way, except that the surfcaster snow fencing will be on bicycle wheels so that, if the surfcasters run or drive to where a sudden new school of fish are seen jumping in the surf a mile east, the volunteers can move the snow fencing to follow the surfcasters as they rush to the new location.

Punishing Snow Fence Perpetrators: Those beachgoers (the perpetrators) who disturb the surfcasters by climbing or otherwise going around the snow fencing to get inside to disturb their concentration will be issued summonses similar to the fines for disturbing the nesting plovers: First offense is $50, second offense is $100, and third offense and beyond is $10,000 and a new mandatory six months in jail sentence (unless commuted by Hochul).

Special Commercial Sales Licenses: All surfcasters will receive free commercial licenses to sell freshly caught and iced fish to area restaurants. Restaurant chefs will be able to name the surfcaster who caught each fish. Thus particular surfcasters could develop thousands of online followers and go viral.

Surfcaster Parking: Surfcasters will be permitted, with their licenses, to park their trucks anywhere, on the beaches, in no-parking zones, or on private property. If a surfcaster truck arrives, pack up and get out of their way. Speed limit rules for surfcaster trucks are suspended. Any accidents are ruled the fault of who they might hit. Just move quickly aside. They are on their way to where the fish are jumping. Please understand. And obey.

Encouraging Surfcasters: The State of New York will issue awards on the first of the month to surfcasters for the biggest fish caught. Hochul will present them personally from her office in either Buffalo or Albany as she moves from one to the other.

Honoree surfcasters and their extended families (maximum 12) will also receive transportation and accommodation reimbursements, free restaurant coupons, event and free full-day bus tour tickets to visit the highlights of the Albany (or Buffalo) area accompanied by their appropriate assembly members or state senators. There also will be a Surfcaster of the Year award given out every January 1 consisting of an 8-foot-tall larger-than-life statue on Albany’s State Capitol campus green. Thus 12 permanent new statues, set up in a semicircle, will be located there each year, starting in 2025. This is way over the top, but necessary, the state thinks.

Surfcaster Exemption: As you may have heard, this coming summer, illegal parking in the Hamptons will be considered a felony, requiring a minimum of 30 days behind bars. But, as you may have guessed, licensed surfcasters will be exempt from these new requirements.

Happy days are here again.