Mr. Colvin distributed and detailed for the Council a series of proposals from DEC to change current regulations governing the harvest of various marine finfish and crustaceans. Mr. Colvin noted that the emergency rule-adoptions noted for scup, black sea bass, and American lobster above, are proposed to be made permanent under this general rule-making. The general rule-making proposal will be published in the New York State Register on 24 July 2002, which will open a 45-day public comment period on these proposals. Mr. Wise asked if, when the DEC publishes proposed regulation changes, does it highlight those that are required as compliance actions under adopted fishery management plans. Mr. Colvin said that this was usually noted in the text summary of the express terms. Once it is published in the State Register, copies of the express terms will be sent to councilors.

Scup

Mr. Colvin noted that the emergency action on 2003 recreational scup regulations, described above, adopted different regulations by mode of fishing. This raises two major issues. The first is the adequacy of the data from the Marine Recreational Fishing Statistics Survey (MRFFS) which was/is used to develop mode-specific regulations. ASMFC adopted a policy guide this year to enable states to implement fishing mode-specific management measures. Mr. Colvin stated that technical advice from Department staff as well as the ASMFC technical committee suggest that the MRFSS catch data by fishing mode for scup is not sufficiently robust to have different mode-based regulations stand up to rigorous statistical review. The second issue associated with the scup regulations is that a portion of the allowable fishing opportunity in the recreational scup fishery has been essentially reallocated to the party/charter modes via the two-week closure in late September for all fishermen other than the party/charter anglers. Under the emergency-adopted and proposed regulations, however, the other segments of the recreational scup fishery did/do get a somewhat longer fishing season than last year. This reallocation issue has not been exposed to wide public review for comment by the angling public. Mr. Colvin stated that it is the Department's desire to terminate this reallocation of recreational scup next year, hopefully providing an increase in the recreational scup harvest target in 2003. The overall strategy is to use the plan initially and then erase the two-week, late September closure.

Councilor Ferrera asked what the reaction had been to another recreational scup option, one which would have set different possession limits for charter/party boat and all other anglers, at 50 fish and 20 fish, respectively, and given everybody the same open season of 25 June - 30 November. Mr. Colvin stated that, in May, there was a meeting involving DEC staff and charter/party boat captains to discuss the various recreational scup options. Many of the captains were opposed the option cited by Councilor Ferrera.

Councilor Danielson suggested that the recreational scup season should be opened earlier that 25 June. Mr. Colvin said that the only data that has been used to enumerate the scup recreational catch is MRFSS data (a combination of the angler intercept and telephone survey data) for every mode. There is not enough data in some modes to stand up to statistical review. The Atlantic Coast Cooperative Statistics Program (ACCSP) indicated that the MRFSS survey, with improvements, is the standard that would be used in the future for monitoring the recreational catch, with a few exceptions. One of the exceptions is the party/charter fishery. Several options are being assessed to secure more reliable data on charter and party boat catches, fishing effort, etc., including trip reports, an expanded MRFSS with a more intense focus on intercepts of party/charter boat anglers, and a telephone surveys of randomly selected trips by party/charter captains. Mr. Colvin stated that, until a new mechanism is instituted, DEC must continue to use regular MRFSS-generated data. More must be invested in fishery data collection, if better catch/effort data on the for-hire fishing mode is to be secured.