Advocates Urge Study on Importance of Fisheries

Representatives of East Hampton Town’s Fisheries Advisory Committee this week again asked the town to help fund a comprehensive analysis of the socioeconomic importance of fisheries on the East End and reiterated fishermen’s concerns about the Deepwater Wind offshore turbine installation. 

The committee would like to hire Cornell Cooperative Extension to conduct the economic analysis, and its members are seeking participation from East Hampton and other local municipalities in order to raise the $100,000 needed to pay for it.

Brad Loewen, the chairman of the fisheries committee, who is a bayman and a former town councilman, said the committee has also been examining how — or if — the State Department of Environmental Conservation considers potential detrimental effects on fisheries when assessing the impact of proposed projects, such as the offshore wind farm. With unsatisfactory responses so far from the D.E.C. to requests for information, the committee, which is working with John Jilnicki, a town attorney, may ask the town board to submit a Freedom of Information Law request for the needed documents.

While the offshore wind turbines 30 miles from Montauk Point may be inevitable, Mr. Loewen said, “the last thing we want to see is that cable go through Napeague and Gardiner’s Bays, and come ashore in the bay. It’s a disaster,” he said.

“Please make sure that it comes ashore on the ocean side,” Mr. Loewen asked the board. Town permission will be needed for the electrical cable’s landing site. The bay area “is the most productive fishing area in New York State, and cannot be disturbed,” he said.

Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell suggested the fisheries committee meet directly with Deepwater Wind to outline its concerns. The board has already asked the company “to minimize use of the bay estuary on the north side” of the Island, he said.

Arnold Leo, another representative of the town’s fisheries advisory committee, also briefed the board Tuesday of the work he does on fishermen’s behalf. Mr. Leo attends about a dozen meetings a year of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, and his presence is critical for East Hampton fisherman, he told the board.

The two fisheries management agencies determine catch limits on various species for both recreational and commercial fishermen. Mr. Leo represents local fishermen’s interests and concerns and sometimes provides a little real-life information, he said in a report to the board.  

Catch limits, imposed to protect fish and shellfish stocks from overfishing and help those that have been depleted replenish themselves, are based on a statistical method of random sampling used to try to determine population levels, Mr. Leo said.

Although the agencies have good data “about 80 percent of the time,” and make “reasonable enough decisions,” sometimes what fishermen find going on in the sea can differ, he said.

By attending the agencies’ meetings, “I have managed to get the Town of East Hampton fishing industry into the loop of decision-making.” He is able to lobby members to consider particular issues and the impact of decisions such as a total moratorium on lobster fishing in this area, which had been proposed. It is hard for a fishery to ever recover from a total shutdown, Mr. Leo said.

Mr. Cantwell acknowledged Mr. Leo’s efforts and that of the entire fisheries committee. “I spent 12 years on the Atlantic Marine Fisheries Commission,” he said, “and I know how important it is to have representation on those committees. So the work you are doing is very important,” he told Mr. Leo.

Mr. Loewen also requested the town board’s backing on an issue of ongoing concern: the county spraying of methoprene on wetlands as a mosquito deterrent, which the fisheries committee wants to see discontinued.