R.I. Gen. Laws § 20-11-7: License required for selling freshwater minnows.

It shall be unlawful for any person to sell or barter, or engage in the business of taking or catching for the purpose of selling or bartering, freshwater live minnows for bait, or to possess more than one hundred (100) freshwater live minnows, without first procuring a license from the department of environmental management. For the purpose of this chapter, “freshwater minnows” shall be defined to include all minnows and the young of all species of freshwater fish except the game species, trout, northern pike, pickerel, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, shad, Atlantic salmon, and alewives.