Saving Seafood

NEW YORK: State legislation would ban big boats from menhaden fishery

June 14, 2018 — The clock is ticking on an effort by local baymen to maintain a sustainable local fishery for Atlantic menhaden through legislation that would ban large commercial purse seine boats from gobbling up the state’s newly expanded quota.

New York’s previously low annual quota for the bait fish, also known as bunker, has largely kept industrial purse seine boats out of the state fishery. The state quota had stood at 250,000 pounds for the entire year. But this year, the state’s allotment was increased to 3.4 million pounds as menhaden fisheries have been rebuilt.

A bill by Assemb. Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) that has already passed the State Assembly would ban purse seining boats from operating in state waters. A Senate version of the bill is sponsored by Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson). It would take effect in 2020.

Local baymen using small-scale nets and fish traps have been the primary state harvesters of bunker, selling them as bait for lobster traps and sport fishing. They’ve also harvested the fish for local towns to prevent massive die-offs that have polluted rivers, bays and beaches over the past several years.

Read the full story at Newsday

New York: New Law Creates Seafood Task Force To Boost Industry

January 3, 2018 — A law designed to support New York’s local fishermen, aquaculturalists and related small businesses has recently been signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

The New York Seafood Marketing Task Force Act of 2017, sponsored, in part, by Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, creates a Seafood Marketing Task Force composed of individuals from Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, the New York Sea Grant Program and Cornell Cooperative Extension, in addition to seafood wholesalers, processors, aquaculturalists and retailers.

As part of its function, the task force will promote the economic and environmental sustainability of the New York seafood industry through marketing initiatives, incentives and educational programs. The task force will seek to prevent mislabeling of seafood products and will work to block illegally caught seafood from New York markets. The task force will begin meeting in 2018.

Read the full story at 27 East

 

State official: NY commercial fishermen ‘getting a raw deal’

November 13, 2017 — New York commercial fishermen are “getting a raw deal” in federal fisheries quotas, and the state will follow through on a lawsuit early next year if meetings in December don’t fix the problem, the state’s top fisheries official said last week.

At a meeting at the East Hampton Public Library on Thursday, Basil Seggos, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, listened to two full hours of complaints about state and federal regulations and management of fisheries, including restrictive quotas, inaccurate fish-population data, difficulty in getting and transferring permits, and “Gestapo”-like tactics of federal observers on local fishing vessels.

Seggos in an interview after the meeting said the state would base its response to federal regulators “on the numbers we get” in the federal quota following a meeting of an interstate commission in December to divvy up the quota for fluke and other species.

Read the full story at NEWSDAY

 

NEW YORK: Strained Fluke Quotas, Hurricanes and Safe Harbor

Case of fisherman bound for North Carolina caught in José’s rough seas highlights inadequacies in interstate fishing regulations

September 29, 2017 — Less than a month after a bill granting vessels safe harbor in New York was signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, a fishing vessel bound for North Carolina carrying 6,000 pounds of fluke has tested the new policy, straining New York’s federally designated fluke quotas.

The F/V Rianda S., which has long been a part of the Montauk fleet, was in transit to land its fish in North Carolina, where it has fishing licenses, on Sept. 17 after fishing in federal waters when it encountered the rough seas generated by Hurricane José and requested safe harbor in Montauk.

New York’s fluke fishery is closed for the month of September,  due to banner fluke landings this summer that strained the state’s already low federally mandated quotas.

The law granting safe harbor, sponsored by South Fork State Assemblyman Fred Thiele and East End State Senator Kenneth LaValle, allowed vessels fishing with licenses from other states immunity from prosecution for violations of state fishing regulations if they seek safe harbor under certain emergency situations, including weather, mechanical breakdown, medical emergencies and loss of essential gear that renders vessels unable to remain at sea.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) guidelines for safe harbor were drawn with input from commercial fishermen after an incident in January 2015, when the arrival of bad weather forced a commercial fisherman with New Jersey fishing permits to land his fish in Hampton Bays instead of continuing on to New Jersey.

Read the full story at the East End Beacon