Chairman Wise reminded everyone that the Department had adopted, by emergency rule making, a number of measures affecting marine recreational fisheries in New York for 2005.  Simultaneously, the Department had proposed that these changes be permanently adopted.  Mr. Gordon Colvin, Director of Marine Fisheries for DEC, said that the public comment period is still open for the permanent rule-making and DEC will have to make a decision to adopt these measures or not on a permanent basis before the Council is scheduled to next meet.  Unfortunately, because the Council does not have a quorum of members present, the Department will have to rely on individual councilor’s opinions rather than a formal recommendation by the Council.  Mr. Colvin stated that Councilor Tom Melton had previously voiced his individual support for the several proposed changes to marine recreational fishing regulations, although he suggested that the possession rules for anglers fishing aboard “for hire” vessels should be the same as those applied to other sectors of the recreational fishing industry.

Mr. Wise reminded the Council that when it reviewed these proposed changes at its March 2005 meeting, it had voiced no objections at the time to adopting the measures on an emergency basis.

Mr. Colvin then summarized the changes:

Fluke:  Open the season on April 29 and close it on October 31st.  Raise the possession limit to 5 fish with a minimum size limit of 17 ½ inches.

Scup:  Establish a 120-day open season (01 July – 31 October) with a 25-fish possession limit, except that from 01 September – 31 October, anglers fishing aboard “for hire” vessels may retain 60 scup.  Minimum size limit is 10 ½ inches.

Black Sea Bass – Eliminate the seasonal closure in the Fall.

Striped Bass – Possession limit is 1 fish between 28” and 40” in length and 1 fish greater than 40” in length.

Bluefish – Raise the possession limit from 10 to 15 fish, no more than 10 of which can be under 12” in length. 

Mr. Colvin noted that the above proposed changes are consistent with the Council’s preliminary advice given to the Council in 2004.

Councilor Sima Freierman stated that she understood the need to implement these changes in the recreational fishing regulations on an emergency basis, which, in some cases was necessary for New York to remain in compliance with regional fishery management plans.  However, she expressed her continuing frustration that she and others in the commercial fishing industry have been seeking relief from onerously low daily trip limits for some species for several years through the mechanism of combining daily limits into weekly limits, but this proposal seems to be on a regulatory slow track and is not expected to be formally proposed until 2006.  She observed that the current low trip limits are economically difficult for many of those in the commercial fishing industry and, at the same time, result in high at-sea discard rates.  Mr. Colvin responded that he understood Ms. Freierman’s frustration, but that it was his recollection that the Council had formally voted to recommend adoption of at least some of the above recreational regulatory changes by emergency action so that they would be in place by the impending deadlines set by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC)

Mr. John Mihale, a commercial fisherman, asked for confirmation that the recreational black sea bass season will now close on 01 December 2005.  (Correct).  He asked if there was a possibility that the fishery could be kept open through December.  Mr. Colvin responded that DEC was prepared to consider it if catches previously in the year allowed it.  A subsequent rule-making may address this possibility.

In response to the observation that the new 2005 recreational fluke measures are considerably more liberal than those in effect for 2004, Mr. Colvin noted that the ASMFC and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC) will be releasing for public review and comment a “framework” or “addendum” to the fluke fishery management plan that would provide for multi-year averaging or a regional approach to fluke measures to get away from drastic year-to-year changes in fluke regulations. 

Mr. Colvin informed the Council that there is no current quantitative stock estimate on scup (porgy).  In lieu of this, a three-year running average of the catch index for scup from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Spring trawl survey.  Two years ago, the scup index was the highest on record and it made the recent three-year average index high.  For 2006, that high index year drops out of the calculation and the scup index from the 2005 Spring trawl survey is very low and it will likely pull down the three-year averaged index for the next several years.  A drop in the scup quota of as much as 90% is possible.  Mr. Colvin described this situation as a “disaster in the making.”  He noted that alternative approaches to quota-setting are being sought.  The perception is not so much that scup abundance has declined; rather that the survey vessel simply did not catch them.  But the formula for calculating the quota is indifferent to such nuances.

Ms. Freierman noted that the National Fisheries Institute has been conducting trawl surveys designed to supplement the NMFS survey, with NMFS observers on board.  She noted that the NFI surveys caught 3-4 times as much scup as the NMFS vessel.  She understood that the NFI survey data would be integrated into the NMFS survey data beginning in 2005.  This might go a long way to improving the scup index and preventing a massive decline in the quota for 2006.

Mr. Wise encouraged individual councilors to comment on the proposed regulations as individuals.  Councilor Tom Jordan commented that he disagreed with Mr. Melton’s suggestion to apply the regular striped bass recreational possession limit to anglers aboard “for hire” vessels.  This would actually penalize “for hire” vessels, who need a more liberal possession limit (2 fish at a minimum length of 28”) to remain competitive with “for hire” vessel fishing for striped bass from neighboring states.

 

Page last modified Thursday, June 30, 2005 by George E. Carroll