Atlantic HMS Angling Permit: Eligibility, Gear, and Reporting

The Atlantic HMS Angling permit is a $24 federal authorization that a private recreational vessel must hold before anyone on board fishes for or keeps highly migratory species — tunas, sharks, swordfish, and billfish — in Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, or Caribbean waters. It runs for a single calendar year, attaches to the boat rather than the angler, and in the case of certain tunas it applies even if you never leave state waters.

Who Needs the Permit

The permit is issued to the vessel. Once the boat is covered, everyone fishing from it is covered for the permitted activity. The owner applies, and the ownership information on the permit has to match the vessel’s Coast Guard documentation or state registration.¹ When a boat has more than one owner, one is designated as primary contact.²

The Angling category is strictly for private recreational use. A vessel that takes paying passengers needs the HMS Charter/Headboat permit instead, and a boat cannot hold both types in the same fishing year.¹ Running a for-hire trip on an Angling permit is a federal violation that can lead to revocation and civil penalties.

The rule that catches people out: the permit is required even for fishing entirely inside state waters if you plan to keep bluefin, yellowfin, bigeye, skipjack, or albacore tuna.³ The federal permit also does not replace your state saltwater fishing license. You need both.

Species and Waters Covered

The permit covers four groups: tunas (bluefin, yellowfin, bigeye, albacore, skipjack), sharks, swordfish, and billfish (blue marlin, white marlin, sailfish, roundscale spearfish).³ If you target or retain any of them, the permit is mandatory.

NOAA’s authority covers federal waters of the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. Federal jurisdiction generally starts 3 nautical miles from shore (9 nautical miles off Texas and the Gulf coast of Florida) and runs out to 200 nautical miles at the edge of the Exclusive Economic Zone.⁴ Federal size and bag limits apply throughout that zone.

Sharks Need a Separate Endorsement

Holding the Angling permit by itself does not let you fish for sharks. A shark endorsement has to be added to the permit, and getting it means completing an online shark identification and regulation course followed by a quiz. You can take the course any time during the fishing year, but the vessel cannot leave the dock on a shark-targeting trip until the endorsement is on the permit.⁵

Accidentally hook a shark without the endorsement and you must release it immediately, without removing it from the water. You can also remove the endorsement from your permit later if you decide you’re done targeting sharks.⁵ Roughly 20 shark species are entirely prohibited even with the endorsement — white shark, whale shark, basking shark, oceanic whitetip, dusky, sandbar, silky, and sand tiger among them — which is a large part of why the ID quiz exists.⁶

How to Apply

Applications go through the NOAA HMS Permit Shop at hmspermits.noaa.gov. The fee is $24.⁷ You’ll need:

A copy of the vessel’s valid Coast Guard documentation or state registration.
Vessel details: name, registration or documentation number, overall length, and propulsion type.
The owner’s Social Security number or federal tax identification number for identity verification.
Primary port of operation and intended fishing area.
A valid email address for the digital permit.

The regulations require a complete application at least 30 days before the desired effective date.⁸ Online applications typically process faster than that, but don’t apply the night before a trip. False information on the application can result in revocation and criminal charges.

Renewal, Transfer, and Replacement

The permit is valid for one calendar year. On renewal, the permit shop lets you pull up existing vessel data so you’re not re-entering everything. Renew before January 1 to avoid a gap when the new year opens.⁵

The permit is not transferable. Sell the vessel and the permit dies with the sale; the buyer must apply for a fresh permit in their own name before fishing for HMS. Buy a new boat and your existing permit doesn’t follow — the new vessel needs its own.⁸

Lost or damaged permits can be reprinted from the HMS Permit Shop. Keep an electronic copy on your phone as backup, but a printed paper copy is still required on board, and any NOAA Fisheries enforcement officer can ask to inspect it.⁷ Update your permit promptly if the vessel name or registration changes during the year, since a mismatch is exactly what triggers problems during a boarding.

What the Permit Obligates You To

The permit isn’t just a receipt. It puts you inside a specific set of federal rules on gear, catch, and reporting.

Authorized Gear

Recreational HMS fishing is limited to specific gear. Commercial gear like longlines and gillnets is off limits. Tunas in the angling category can be taken with rod and reel (including downriggers), handline, or speargun. Billfish are rod and reel only. Sharks and recreationally caught swordfish are rod and reel or handline only. Gaffs, flying gaffs, and tail ropes may only be used boat-side on a fish already caught on primary gear; using them on a free-swimming fish is illegal.⁹ Shark fishing requires non-offset, corrodible (non-stainless) circle hooks, with the only exception being flies or artificial lures, and non-offset circle hooks are also mandatory for billfish tournaments when natural bait or bait-lure combinations are in use.¹

Size and Retention

Each HMS species has its own minimum size and daily bag limits, and some are strict. Bluefin under 27 inches curved fork length cannot be kept, targeted bluefin fishing is prohibited in the Gulf of Mexico, and only one day’s retention may be on board when you return to the dock regardless of trip length.¹⁰ Recreational swordfish must be at least 47 inches lower-jaw fork length, with a limit of one per person and four per vessel per trip.¹¹ Check the current species pages before every trip; these limits change.

Reporting

All swordfish landings, all billfish landings, and all bluefin tuna landings and dead discards must be reported to NOAA within 24 hours of the trip’s return. Reporting runs through the HMS Permit Shop online, the NOAA Catch Reporting app, and a handful of other channels.¹² Missing the 24-hour window is a violation, and this data drives quota management for the fishery.

No Sale

Fish caught under an HMS Angling permit cannot be sold or transferred for any commercial purpose. The catch is for personal use or tag-and-release.¹ Selling recreationally caught HMS without a commercial permit is a prohibited act under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which authorizes civil penalties of up to $100,000 per violation, with each day of a continuing violation counted separately.¹³ Low-severity first offenses may end in a written warning or a penalty in the low thousands; intentional violations move into five figures quickly, and repeat offenders lose the permit.

1
eCFR. 50 CFR Part 635 – Atlantic Highly Migratory Species
2
NOAA Fisheries. Atlantic Tunas and Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Permit Application
3
NOAA Fisheries. Frequently Asked Questions: Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Permits
4
NOAA. U.S. Maritime Limits and Boundaries
5
NOAA Fisheries. HMS Recreational Compliance Guide
6
NOAA Fisheries. Atlantic Highly Migratory Species
7
NOAA Fisheries. Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Angling Permit (Open Access)
8
eCFR. 50 CFR 635.4 – Permits and Fees
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eCFR. 50 CFR 635.19 – Authorized Gears
10
NOAA Fisheries. Recreational Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Fishery Statuses and Bag Limits
11
NOAA Fisheries. Recreational Atlantic Swordfish Fishery Statuses, Minimum Sizes, and Bag Limits
12
NOAA Fisheries. Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Reporting
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 16 USC 1858 – Civil Penalties and Permit Sanctions