April 2, 2018 — With the fishing season approaching, state fisheries officials are under greater pressure than ever to reject mandates from federal and coastal fisheries regulators to limit New York’s quota for abundant black sea bass.

New York’s top fisheries regulator said Thursday, the state was reviewing a range of tools to push back against the quota, including even noncompliance with the federal rules if a recently filed appeal or a lawsuit fails to change reductions in the fishery.

“I’m prepared to go to the bear cage on this if it means having to take more drastic action,” state Environmental Conservation commissioner Basil Seggos said in an interview. Noncompliance is “an option that’s on the table for us. We have to approach that carefully and understand the full implications of that and exhaust all the other options” before considering it, he said. In any case, he said, “I don’t want to see our fishermen take a cut this year or next year.”

New York recreational anglers and boat captains face a 12 percent reduction for black sea bass this year, which would translate into a shorter season and fewer keeper fish each day. Black sea bass are a particularly vital species for recreational boats, in part because the fish are so plentiful. The black sea-bass fishery has been restored to more than 2 1⁄2 times the levels that regulators consider sufficiently rebuilt.

At a sometimes-raucous meeting last Tuesday, held by the DEC at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine & Atmospheric Sciences, hundreds of fishermen and women packed a hall to demand the state bring quotas into line with New Jersey and other states that are allotted larger shares.

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