September 4, 2013 — The historic closure of Long Island Sound to lobster fishing this Sunday has forced a dwindling breed of lobstermen to remove their traps from the water this month and plan for an uncertain future.
For the first time ever, federal and state fisheries officials ordered the closure of the Sound fishery, from Sept. 8 through Nov. 28. Regulators say the ban, which aims to cut harvesting by 10 percent in the Southern New England Fishery, is necessary to help rebuild a lobster population in sharp decline over the past decade, including record low surveys in the last four years, officials say. Lobster traps, 50-pound contraptions also known as pots, must be out of the water by Sept. 22, and stay out through Nov. 14.
For veteran lobsterman John German, 65, of Brookhaven, it means hauling out and storing 500 pots as he faces the loss of as much as $10,000 in income, he said. German, president of the Long Island Sound Lobstermen's Association, a fishermen's group, predicted the biggest impact would be not on the lobsters but the dozen or so lobstermen who still actively fish.
"We knew it was coming; we're not happy about it," he said, calling the closure a "feel-good" gesture by regulators. "It's going to impact guys. It's going to shut us down at a somewhat productive time."
The state Department of Environmental Conservation, working with a mandate from the federal Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, notified lobstermen of the closure a year ago.
"The timing of the closure will decrease fishing effort during a time when water temperature is high and stressful to lobster," the agency responded to Newsday questions. Experts have blamed the population decline on warmer waters, predator fish and insecticide-tainted runoff water into the Sound.
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