I do have a permit for my buoy, and the water patrol occasionally checks it. In fact they've been very helpful. Once when the buoy was washed away in high water they returned it about 2 years later. A second time I lost it I found one in a logjam and brought it home and installed it. An officer cane by, checked the numbers, told me it was previously unregistered and put my permit number on it. I wish they would spend that much time enforcing the rules of the road.