Councilor Mason brought up the dire end-of-season situation for many commercial fishermen. The quotas for virtually all targeted species had closed and it was hard to make a living on just squid with fuel prices so high. He had had to return to port empty because his 6" nets were so full of by-catch, especially dogfish, which used to be a staple of this season. He was now expending twice the effort but making less money and also probably damaging the resource because of by-catch. He feels the quota system was not working for the New York commercial fishermen; by the time some of the species arrived in his area, the season was closed. Other commercial fishermen in the audience concurred with Mr. Mason: too many species were being closed out too soon, and the by-catch problems were horrific. Mr. Wise said that this was a difficult topic because of the different quotas and mesh sizes for each species. Mr. Colvin agreed that there were years of history and frustration involved. He stated that the fluke management plan was working: the biomass was growing and the age structure was improving except for recruitment. DEC feels it would be appropriate to expand the quota, but a federal court decision prevented any increase for at least another year. Both the ASMFC and the Mid-Atlantic Council were committed to come up with alternative approaches in the coming year to accommodate the needs of fishermen. He stated that DEC is suing in federal court to increase the summer scup quota. The DEC believed that the bluefish quota is deflated because much of the historical landings were from hook and line and not recorded. This year, Virginia traded 500,000 lb. of bluefish quota to New York, which increased New York’s quota by 50%. The opportunity to obtain quota from Virginia and Florida should continue for several years. Mr. Colvin characterized the spiny dogfish situation as a disaster of overfishing and inadequate regulation, because the only regulations in place were federal. A "constant harvest" strategy may be developed in the future for spiny dogfish to ease transitions. However, this season unrestricted, uncontrolled fishing from Massachusetts took almost all the dogfish quota before anyone else had a chance. Mr. Emerson Hasbrouck of Suffolk County Cooperative Extension’s Marine Program pointed out that ASMFC fishing mortality targets were the common factor in these quota inequities. He suggested that if the Council discussed the reauthorization of the Magnuson Act at a future meeting, it consider recommending a change in the "overfishing" definition which determined these targets. This one small change could make an enormous difference.