Mr. Wise referred the Council to a memorandum sent to him and Steve Heins of DEC by Mr. Arnold Leo, consultant for commercial fisheries to the Town of East Hampton.  The focus of Mr. Leo's memorandum is the current legal limit on the length of vessels allowed to commercially harvest fish and shellfish in the New York's Marine District.  That limit, enacted into state law in 1997, is 70 feet.  Vessels longer than 70' that were licensed to fish in New York's marine waters at the time the law was enacted were "grandfathered" and allowed to continue to fish.  However, should an owner of a grandfathered larger-than-70 foot vessel wish to replace his/her boat, they could only do so with a vessel no longer than 70 feet.  Mr. Leo thought that such a restriction on replacement vessel length was not encompassed by the intended purpose of the law and represented an economic hardship on the owners of presently grandfathered vessels.  Mr. Leo suggested that the current laws be amended to allow the owner of a grandfathered vessel to replace the vessel with another up to 10% longer. This is the approach taken under federal law for vessels licensed to fish in the Exclusive Economic Zone (3 ® 200 miles offshore).

In commenting on this memorandum, Mr. Leo noted that the purpose of the length limitation law was to prevent large trawl vessels from New England moving down to fish in New York State waters as their ability to fish in the EEZ was increasingly constrained by the groundfish fishery management plan. 
  
One audience member, Mr. Hank Lockner, suggested that, should an owner lose a vessel due to an accident, he/she should be able to replace it with another vessel that is up to 10% larger, whether or not the lost vessel was grandfathered.  Chairman Wise clarified that the proposal to allow replacement vessels to be upt to 10% longer than the vessels they replace, as he understood Mr. Leo's proposal, would apply only to grandfathered boats. Councilor Jordan said that he thinks the proposal should be revised to allow this a 10% larger replacement allowance to any vessel 63 feet in length or longer.  He suggested that, by restricting this allowance to grandfathered vessels (greater than 70 feet), Mr. Leo's proposal disadvantaged vessels close to but under the current length limit.

Councilor Mason stated that there is a difference between “registered length,” which is how the State measures a vessels length and “overall length,” which is used by the federal government.  A vessel's overall length is often significantly longer than its registered length.

Commercial fisherman John Mihale supported Mr. Jordan's suggestion that any 10% replacement allowance be granted to currently licensed boats 63 feet long or longer. 

Chairman Wise asked DEC staff if they had information on the size structure of New York's licensed commercial fishing fleet; i.e., how many/what percentage of the licensed vessels are less than 20 feet long, 20-39 feet; 40-59 feet, etc.  Staff replied that this information was available but has not been compiled by the Department.

Councilor Danielson moved to table the discussion of Mr. Leo's proposal until November 2007 or January 2008 Council meeting, when more information on the number of vessels the proposal would include and the size structure of the fleet were available to the Council.  Councilor Somma seconded the motion.  The motion to table was adopted by a vote of 10 in favor; 2 opposed; 2 abstentions.  

Mr. Wise will work with the DEC staff to develop the necessary information.  DEC staff said that pulling together comprehensive information on the size structure of the currently licensed commercial fishing vessel fleet in New York might not be achievable.

 

Page last modified Wednesday, October 31, 2007 by George E. Carroll