July 31, 2017 — On Long Island, so much of our economy and way of life are connected to the water around us. Fishing is a treasured part of our identities as Long Islanders. Yet today, the current flaws in the management of our fisheries isn’t just raising costs for commercial fishermen and charter boat captains- it also hurts all the small businesses in the coastal economy, including restaurants, bait & tackle shops, hotels, and gas stations. Quite candidly, it is also making this pastime just nowhere near as much fun as it used to be either. As the Representative for New York’s First Congressional District, which is almost entirely surrounded by water, I am committed to supporting our fishermen and ensuring this tradition is preserved for generations to come.
The current management of our fisheries has created a web of unnecessary restrictions on our local anglers. For example, just recently, regulators gave final approval to a confusing set of requirements that call for a one inch difference in the size limit for fluke, 18 inches for New Jersey anglers, but 19 inches for New York. There is also a proposed regulation that would create two separate sets of rules for blackfish, one for the North Shore, and one for the South Shore. Current rules in our state also limit anglers to only one striped bass and weakfish per day. A rule like this is very damaging to the fishing industry. Many people just aren’t going to spend all the money it costs to go out on a charter boat if they can only catch and keep one fish.
Using flawed, outdated data to justify that bad rule makes even less sense. New York representatives on regional councils have to do much more to fight for our fishermen because we continue to get rolled at the table by other coastal states that take a much more proactive role within these councils, getting better quotas for their states while New York anglers do not get their fair share.