Mr. Wise reported on this ad hoc work group and its recent activities. Commercial fishermen holding the special state commercial fluke harvesting permit have been meeting with Mr. Wise and Mr. John Mason of DEC over the past year to discuss improving commercial fluke quota management in New York. Several suggestions are supported by a consensus of the group. First, quarterly division of the annual commercial quota should be changed. The new quarters should become January 1-April 30, May 1-July 31, August 1-October 31, November 1-December 31. Second, make annual renewal of special fluke harvest permits contingent on individual documentation of some landings of this species in the recent past. Third, commercial fluke permit holders should be requested/required to provide information to DEC via survey or some other means on what gears they are using to harvest fluke. This information is needed to develop an allocation scheme.

No agreement has yet been reached on four issues: First, how should historical commercial fluke landings in New York be documented? Undocumented landings were not included in the NMFS data used to allocate the annual coast-wide commercial fluke harvest among the states. With this data, New York could push for an increase in its portion of that quota, which is now only 7% of the coast-wide quota. Many commercial fishermen have alleged that we were catching more during the base period than the NMFS data shows; this must be proven with hard data. Second, whether and how an allocation system should be developed to divide New York’s annual commercial quota for fluke among the different gear types. Third, whether or not to establish full- and part-time categories for holders of special commercial fluke harvesting permits. Lastly, whether consolidation of trip limits would be better for the fishermen and the resource; enforcement might become impossible.

Chairman Wise invited interested parties to attend the next meeting of this working group on 26 August 1999. Mr. Colvin suggested that law enforcement be invited to attend meetings to address the issue of late reporting. Requiring some fluke landings as a precondition to renewing fluke permits could be added to the regulatory list.