Originally Posted by
CharlieTuna
You touched on some good points. I know 5 guys with commercial licenses. 3 of them openly brag how they are selling outside their license to restaurants and mom and pop fish markets, so it doesn't go on their total. This is more widespread than you think. These abuses have to be stopped with higher fines and better enforcement.
As for the out of state guys, I don't think you can stop them from fishing, as you said. What you can do is make their license cost 10x what a resident pays. Or prove that 50% of their income came from commercial fishing. This is not without precedent. Alaska, Florida, and many other states have license fee differentials for in-state vs out of state. This seems like the fairest in the long run.