The fisheries division later turned the ponds over to direct park management.

Richard Jacobson, assistant director of the fisheries division of the D.E.P., said the permit process is difficult, but not impossible.

"As soon as the fish start showing up, people are out there," said Thomas Savoy, a biologist with the Department of Environmental Protection's fisheries division in Waterford.

"It's as old as the rivers themselves," joked Bill Hyatt, director of the department's inland fisheries division.

And Ernie Beckwith, the chief of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection's marine fisheries division, was more cautious.

From 1897 to 1902, he served as chief of the Fish Commission's fisheries division.

This tool is used by the various fisheries divisions for a variety of management objectives.

According to Randy Fairbanks of the state's marine fisheries division, no commercial striper permits for 1989 will be issued until the commission makes a ruling on the matter.

Earlier this year the fisheries division proposed including fish bred in hatcheries along with their wild cousins when calculating whether a salmon species is still endangered.

A spokesman for the fisheries division disagreed, saying the actions the agencies were taking or planned to take would be sufficient to protect the salmon.