Mr. Colvin informed the Council that the Department is adopting, by emergency rule-making the following measures for 2004 recreational fisheries for summer flounder (fluke), scup (porgy), and black sea bass:

Summer flounder:  17” minimum length; 3-fish possession limit; open season 15 May – 06 September

Scup:  11” minimum length; 20-fish possession limit; open seasons 16 June - 17 October and 01 November – 30 November

Black sea bass:  12 “ minimum length; 25-fish possession limit; open seasons 01 January – 22 September and 08 October – 31 December

Mr. Colvin noted that the summer flounder measures would achieve a projected 20% decrease in catch, while the scup measures should produce the required 58% catch reduction.  In setting the summer flounder measures, DEC has decided to comply with the Atlantic States marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) fishing mortality reduction target by using a 3-year average of recreational summer flounder landings rather than using just the 2003 landings estimate; this results in a 20% rather than a 48.5% reduction.  Originally, the first open season for sea bass was to end on 06 September, the same last day as the summer flounder open season.  Mr. Colvin informed the Council that he checked with ASMFC and was told that it didn’t made any difference what 2 weeks were closed as long as they were in Wave 5 (September/October).  So the black sea bass closure was moved back to the third week of September.

Mr. Colvin stated that the above measures will by in place under the emergency rule for a defined period of time (45 days), which also constitutes the comment period.  After 45 days, the emergency rule will either expire, be extended or be adopted permanently.  It can be adopted as is or with one or more non-substantive changes.  DEC also realizes that there is an ongoing debate, discussion, and analysis concerning the 2003 Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey (MRFSS) New York catch estimates for these recreational species.  Mr. Colvin reported that the national Marine Fisheries Service has completed its reassessment of these estimates and the report that the agency has filed and sent to New York does not measure up to DEC’s expectations.  DEC has commented on what they would like to see in terms of supplemental analysis and answers to questions.  There has been some discussion between DEC staff and MRFSS staff, but DEC is not expecting any additional information to come from NMFS in the near future.

Mr. Colvin also noted that, in addition to the summer flounder, scup, and black sea bass measures described above, the Department is going to propose regulatory changes on bluefish and striped bass through normal rule making.  For bluefish, the recreational possession limit will increase from 10 to 15 fish, with a consideration for retaining a 10-fish limit for age zero fish (snappers) which would be defined by size.  For striped bass, the recreational possession limit will be increased to two fish from one, but the second fish must be longer than 40 inches.

 

Page last modified Friday, May 14, 2004 by George E. Carroll