OUPV (Six-Pack) and Master credential paths for charter boats, tour boats, and passenger-for-hire operators in South Dakota.
It isn't a state license — it's the same federal USCG Merchant Mariner Credential with an OUPV or Master endorsement, used nationwide.
South Dakota walleye guides on Lake Oahe pursue OUPV Inland. The Missouri is a Western River.
The nearest USCG Regional Examination Center is St. Louis, MO. Compare centers and appointment rules in the USCG REC locations guide.
Major South Dakota charter hubs
The Missouri River and its mainstem impoundments, Lake Oahe and Lake Sharpe, are South Dakota's navigable water, and the river is within the 33 CFR 83.03(n) Western Rivers definition. Whether a mainstem reservoir behind Oahe Dam carries the same provisions is an OCMI determination rather than an inference, and this page does not make it. No Part 80 demarcation line exists in South Dakota, so everything here is inland water under 83.03(q) and the Inland Rules apply. For candidates whose real sea service was earned on the coasts or the Great Lakes, the useful discipline is a record that separates each water by name, dates and vessel — REC St. Louis will make the route determination from that, not from the applicant's state.
33 CFR Part 80 draws no demarcation line in South Dakota. Its 106 sections cover the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, the Pacific islands and Alaska; a state with no coast has no section, which is itself the answer.
Western Rivers (the Missouri River) are defined at 33 CFR 83.03(n) and carry Inland Rules provisions the rest of inland water does not: 83.09(a)(ii), 83.14(d), 83.15(b) and the towing-light exception at 83.24(j).
This decides which rulebook you steer by, not where your credential may operate: the route limit is the 46 CFR Part 7 Boundary Line, and the two lines are not drawn in the same place. How the two lines differ · International Rules · Inland Rules
33 CFR Part 80 and the Part 83 definitions above read from eCFR on 12 Aug 2026. Any specific water is a determination for the cognizant Coast Guard Officer in Charge, Marine Inspection.
Not sure the trip needs a credential at all? The captain's-license trigger guide.
Document your sea service
Pass the medical & drug test
CG-719K and CG-719P — medical certificate guide.
Get a TWIC + CPR / First Aid
Submit your application to the NMC
Pass the exam at REC St. Louis, MO
Or an approved course provider — what it covers and the score you need.
There is no South Dakota captain's license to get — you earn a federal USCG credential, in the five steps set out above, and sit the exam at REC St. Louis, MO.
The same — a federal Merchant Mariner Credential endorsement, valid in every state. South Dakota licenses the business, the guide and local fishing separately.
The minimum age is federal, not set by South Dakota: 18 for OUPV, 19 for most Master endorsements, 21 for higher-tonnage and ocean routes (46 CFR 11.201(e)).
At REC St. Louis, MO once the NMC approves the application, or through an approved course provider that administers the exam itself.
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