Mr. Colvin of DEC informed the Council that, during the previous legislative session, the State Legislature had passed legislation authorizing DEC to adopt regulations with respect to harvesting lobsters in Lobster Conservation Management Area #4, along the south shore of Long Island.

At the Council’s November 2001 meeting, the Department distributed proposed regulations to implement the Special Management Areas (SMA) provisions of the Environmental Conservation Law, including regulations to identify SMA’s, overall use regulations for SMA’s and for artificial reefs, and designation of a Fishers Island SMA and specific regulations for that SMA to be implemented on an emergency basis. Mr. Colvin stated that the Department has suspended administration of the emergency rule applied to the Fishers Island SMA because of litigation in Federal court. The general SMA regulatory proposal still stands and the Department has received a number of comments on it. It is likely that the general regulations will need to be revised consistent with the judge’s finding in the Fishers Island court case. The Department will not adopt that rule as it was proposed, but will instead soon issue revised proposed regulations applicable to the Fisher’s Island part of the rule. The public comment record will be shared with the Council at its 19 March 2002 meeting.