12-17-2006, 12:27 PM
IslandFear over flounder limits
Officials say cutting back on fluke catch will replenish the supply later, but the LI fishing industry sees financial disaster with the move.
BY JENNIFER SMITH
Newsday Staff Writer
December 11, 2006, 9:34 PM EST
New limits on summer flounder could reduce by nearly half the amount New York's recreational fishermen can take from local waters.
The cutback will hit Long Island hard because summer flounder, or fluke, form the backbone of the region's lucrative recreational fishing industry.
As dozens of
and anxious fishermen looked on, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted Monday to slice the quota, reducing the coastwide limit for summer flounder from more than 23 million pounds to about 17 million.
The vote on the 2007 quota came at a packed Manhattan meeting of the commission's summer flounder, scup and black sea bass management board, which sets the limit for those species in state waters. The commission represents 15 states from Maine to Florida, each of which has three commissioners: the state marine fisheries director, a state legislator and a governor appointee.
A sharp reduction in the summer flounder quota had been anticipated because the species is not bouncing back from decline fast enough to meet a federal rebuilding timetable. Under the current management plan, East Coast summer flounder stocks have to virtually double their numbers by 2010 -- from 104 million to 204 million pounds.
A number of fishermen and industry representatives who spoke before the vote Monday called the federal target and 10-year timetable arbitrary and unrealistic, pointing out that summer flounder had improved overall since a decline in the late 1980s. Some questioned the accuracy of the data federal fisheries scientists use to calculate how quickly fish stocks are rebounding and called for additional peer-reviewed studies. Others pointed to the plight of local fishermen, who they said could lose their businesses because of declining quotas and over-regulation.
"I would ask you to consider the people in these industries at least as much as you do the fish," said Allen Singer, a columnist for Noreast Saltwater, a Smithtown-based fishing magazine.
But Gordon Colvin, head of marine resources for New York state's Department of Environmental Conservation and a member of the commission, said managers had few alternatives. He noted, for example, that preliminary tallies showed New York recreational fishermen exceeded their 2006 quota by 30 percent. "Any way we look at it, we're looking at a smaller recreational quota," Colvin said.
Monday's announced cutbacks could have been even more stringent were it not for a rider attached to the Magnuson-Stevens Federal Fisheries Act, which was reauthorized by Congress late last week. That rider extended the rebuilding timetable for summer flounder by three years, provided that overfishing is not occurring and that the previous rebuilding target of 204 million pounds will be met within the new time frame.
"If we didn't have that rider, we would be at 12.98 million pounds," said Pat Augustine, a New York representative on the commission, referring to the quota that the National Marine Fisheries Service proposed earlier this fall.
Because of the changed timetable, the federal fisheries service now plans to propose that the summer flounder quota be set at 17.1 million, provided the criteria in the rider are satisfied.
Monday the commission approved a resolution setting up a quota in two steps: they voted to adopt a 2007 catch level of 12.98 million pounds that will be increased to at least 17.1 million after the emergency fisheries rule kicks in.
"What we've got now is not so good," said Brian Culhane, who represents the office of state Sen. Owen Johnson (R-Babylon) on the commission. "It's still going to be very difficult for the Captree boats and the bait and tackle shops."
Commercial fishermen receive 60 percent of the coastwide summer flounder quota and recreational fishermen receive 40 percent; those allotments are then divided up by state based on historical landings. Coastwide, New York receives about 7.65 percent of the commercial fishery allotment and 17.6 percent of the recreational, according to Toni Kerns of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.
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Officials say cutting back on fluke catch will replenish the supply later, but the LI fishing industry sees financial disaster with the move.
BY JENNIFER SMITH
Newsday Staff Writer
December 11, 2006, 9:34 PM EST
New limits on summer flounder could reduce by nearly half the amount New York's recreational fishermen can take from local waters.
The cutback will hit Long Island hard because summer flounder, or fluke, form the backbone of the region's lucrative recreational fishing industry.
As dozens of
and anxious fishermen looked on, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted Monday to slice the quota, reducing the coastwide limit for summer flounder from more than 23 million pounds to about 17 million. The vote on the 2007 quota came at a packed Manhattan meeting of the commission's summer flounder, scup and black sea bass management board, which sets the limit for those species in state waters. The commission represents 15 states from Maine to Florida, each of which has three commissioners: the state marine fisheries director, a state legislator and a governor appointee.
A sharp reduction in the summer flounder quota had been anticipated because the species is not bouncing back from decline fast enough to meet a federal rebuilding timetable. Under the current management plan, East Coast summer flounder stocks have to virtually double their numbers by 2010 -- from 104 million to 204 million pounds.
A number of fishermen and industry representatives who spoke before the vote Monday called the federal target and 10-year timetable arbitrary and unrealistic, pointing out that summer flounder had improved overall since a decline in the late 1980s. Some questioned the accuracy of the data federal fisheries scientists use to calculate how quickly fish stocks are rebounding and called for additional peer-reviewed studies. Others pointed to the plight of local fishermen, who they said could lose their businesses because of declining quotas and over-regulation.
"I would ask you to consider the people in these industries at least as much as you do the fish," said Allen Singer, a columnist for Noreast Saltwater, a Smithtown-based fishing magazine.
But Gordon Colvin, head of marine resources for New York state's Department of Environmental Conservation and a member of the commission, said managers had few alternatives. He noted, for example, that preliminary tallies showed New York recreational fishermen exceeded their 2006 quota by 30 percent. "Any way we look at it, we're looking at a smaller recreational quota," Colvin said.
Monday's announced cutbacks could have been even more stringent were it not for a rider attached to the Magnuson-Stevens Federal Fisheries Act, which was reauthorized by Congress late last week. That rider extended the rebuilding timetable for summer flounder by three years, provided that overfishing is not occurring and that the previous rebuilding target of 204 million pounds will be met within the new time frame.
"If we didn't have that rider, we would be at 12.98 million pounds," said Pat Augustine, a New York representative on the commission, referring to the quota that the National Marine Fisheries Service proposed earlier this fall.
Because of the changed timetable, the federal fisheries service now plans to propose that the summer flounder quota be set at 17.1 million, provided the criteria in the rider are satisfied.
Monday the commission approved a resolution setting up a quota in two steps: they voted to adopt a 2007 catch level of 12.98 million pounds that will be increased to at least 17.1 million after the emergency fisheries rule kicks in.
"What we've got now is not so good," said Brian Culhane, who represents the office of state Sen. Owen Johnson (R-Babylon) on the commission. "It's still going to be very difficult for the Captree boats and the bait and tackle shops."
Commercial fishermen receive 60 percent of the coastwide summer flounder quota and recreational fishermen receive 40 percent; those allotments are then divided up by state based on historical landings. Coastwide, New York receives about 7.65 percent of the commercial fishery allotment and 17.6 percent of the recreational, according to Toni Kerns of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.
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