Fishermen See Disaster in Plan
(02/26/2009) Adding new fisheries regulations would be disastrous, several people told representatives of a state group working to save the coastal and Great Lakes environments on Tuesday at the Montauk Library.
“The regulations worked, and I commend them for that,” Bart Ritchie, a commercial fisherman from Montauk, said of state regulators. “But it’s time to ease up. . . . You’ve ruined my livelihood. I have no pride in what I do anymore.”
Representatives of the New York Ocean and Great Lakes Ecosystem Conservation Council, whose members hail from nine state agencies, presented their draft report before a small audience that included members of the Concerned Citizens of Montauk and the Surfrider Foundation as well as commercial fishermen and their supporters.
Among an array of recommendations in the report were measures to preserve the watershed, protect critical habitats, and institute no-fishing zones.
The report gave a bleak assessment of the state’s commercial marine fisheries. “New York’s ocean, and the services it provides,” it said, “are in trouble, threatened by depleted fish stocks, pollution, destruction of productive habitat, a changing climate, and overuse.”
“Fisheries are not in peril,” Bonnie Brady, the executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, said on Tuesday. “Stocks are in great shape. ‘Over-fishing’ sounds good, it frightens people, but it’s not the reality. There’s an agenda here.”
Ms. Brady said that the report relied heavily on scientists “directly or indirectly” funded by the Pew Institute for Ocean Conservation, which she believes has an anti-fishing agenda.
“The point is that this is not an open process,” she said. “You come with an agenda from an advocacy group that puts out misinformation under the guise of science. The information you are using is faulty.”
The goal of the council is to protect natural resources while considering the social and economic effects of new regulations. The state agencies took part in a two-year study of the two vast ecosystems, studying both natural and manmade factors.
To the dismay of some at the library on Tuesday, the council plans to recommend further protections of offshore habitats, such as bans on fishing, establishing marine sanctuaries and “underwater parks,” expanding no-discharge zones, and introducing a license for saltwater recreational fishing. A state license is already required for most freshwater fishing.
Furthermore, the State Department of Environmental Conservation plans to establish “action zones,” including one for the marine ecosystem from the Peconic Bay Estuary to New York Harbor. The Local Waterfront Revitalization Program, the report says, should be expanded with tougher standards and more training for local government officials.
“We are already overregulated,” one commercial fisherman who did not identify himself said. “We can’t survive anymore. You keep coming out with regulations and we keep abiding by them, but pretty soon we can’t do it anymore.”
Insufficient notice of the meeting was a complaint of those who made it. “When you have a meeting like this, this room should be full,” Mr. Ritchie said. “Everybody in this town should be here. I just found out about this by walking on the dock. Where was it publicized?”
Representatives of the council, which includes state officials from the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Agriculture and Markets Department, the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, and the Economic Development, State, and Transportation Departments, acknowledged their failure to provide better notice.
The event is one of 14 that have taken place or are scheduled throughout New York. The council hopes to bring a revised draft report to the State Legislature by the end of March. The public comment period was initially scheduled to close on Monday, but that deadline was tentatively extended to March 13.
Another meeting was held yesterday in Greenport and one is scheduled for today from 1 to 3:30 p.m. in room 120 of the Endeavor Building of the School of Marine and Atmospheric Science on the south campus of the State University at Stony Brook. Several East Hampton Town officials have said they plan to attend the Stony Brook session.
While the purpose of the meetings is for the council to gather input from the community, some remain skeptical that their voices are really being heard.
“We have no guarantee that what you hand us back is anything but lip service,” Ms. Brady said.
“You keep saying that your motives are pure, but what’s going on is absolute insanity,” Mr. Ritchie said. “We say something and it goes in one ear and out the other.”
Additional information about the program and a copy of the draft report can be found on the Web at nyoglecc.org.