I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who thought he had just heard that in order to legally fish outside of 60 miles from the coast line you would have to have a passport. He said that this wasn't goign to go into effect until later on in the year. I searched the net quickly but didn't see anything on it. Anyone out there know anything about this?
well, I have firsthand knowledge on this due to a cruise coming in January. Originally I panicked and rushed down and applied for my passort- well, its been a hectic battle seeing as I am paying child support now. After hearing mixed reports of where, how, and when- I called Carnival Cruise Line 1(888)CARNIVAL . This is what they told me, and they deal with customs on a daily basis: Starting January 1st, 2007 all travel by AIR will require a passport. Travel by LAND or SEA will not require a passport until Jan 2008(she said in reality it will be more like the summer of 2009).
Thanks for all of the information. In reality, especially outside of cruise ships, how do you imagine that would be enforceable?
I don't believe the Coast Guard will be checking passports on sportfish boats that are 60 or more miles offshore unless it is a tip or hunch. But, it is a tool for them to pull over boats and vessels that might look shady. There has been a lot of illegals brought in from offshore. In fact, it's a problem right now. I believe a Capt. from SPI got caught this summer. From I hear, he had a very good reputation and business going on at the time. I think the fact that you can make more money hauling illegals than fisherman has generated some concern with the Home Land Security office. I think a drivers license or photo ID will be just fine. I'm not taking my passport offshore until I hear that they are enforcing it. If it helps stop illegals and terriost from getting into the country, I'll do as asked. As long as you speak good English and can answer all their questions you should be fine without the passport. I quess time will tell.
We could spend a lot of time second guessing the program and still more time trying to make sense of the policy behind it all. Fortunately, passports are cheap, easy to get/maintain and we can get back to fishing. I normally carry a passport fishing LR; so, it sounds like the simple answer is to vacuum pack the passport with a float and throw it into the offshore bag.
I was pretty curious myself to how they were going to enforce it, but then again I don't have the best of luck in the world and I will will more than likely be the first sob caught out there without one. Thanks for the info
