Tag Archives: Department of Environmental Conservation.
Senator Schumer pushes for new black sea bass commercial fishing regulations
Sen. Charles Schumer was in Northport Wednesday calling for updated fishing industry regulations and to consider allowing commercial fishers to catch black sea bass in June. New York’s sea bass fishing closed on May 31, and does not reopen until July 1 – a schedule Schumer claimed is hurting the industry. “The black sea bass stocks are thriving and the industry is well below its allowable quota so it makes sense to keep open this fishery in June rather than close it,” Schumer said. “We also must change the arbitrary and outdated federal regulations that hamstring the state DEC so we can more coherently and fairly manage the black sea bass fishery.” Citing the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, Schumer said the 2016 New York State allocation for black sea bass is approximately 200,000 pounds, yet as of May 25. Yet only about 40,000 pounds have been caught. Read the rest here 13:43
A dwindling North Fork fishing community urge emergency measures to keep black sea bass season open
About a dozen of them met at a Mattituck marina Thursday to vent their frustration at the measure, which one fisherman said would reduce his income by 80 percent. Meanwhile, the state’s top fishing regulator wrote a letter to federal fisheries managers urging them to expedite an assessment to improve the data upon which local quotas are based. State regulators are pushing federal regulators to fix the problem. In a May 17 letter to top federal fishing regulators, Basil Seggos, acting DEC commissioner, noted the fishery has been rebuilt since 2009, yet fishermen “continue to struggle under low catch limits and restrictive measures while black sea bass appear to be more abundant than in any time in recent history.” Read the story here 14:41
NY Fishermen: State Officers Violating The Constitution With Searches And Sales Of Seized Catch
State lawmakers and fishermen’s advocates are pushing legislation that would rein in the powers of search and seizure by state environmental enforcement officers. State Department of Environmental Conservation officers routinely cross geographic boundaries in their searches of fishermen’s boats, trucks and properties, charged Dan Rogers, an attorney who has represented several fishermen against DEC charges, and then competes economically against those fishermen in selling the seized fish for profits to pad state budgets. Mr. Rodgers said at a gathering of fishermen and officials at the home of brothers Danny and Paul Lester, commercial fishermen from Amagansett, on Thursday afternoon. “It’s legal under New York State law, but it’s not legal under the constitution.” Read the rest here 11:58
East End fishermen gather, demand changes to state enforcement laws
East End commercial fishing advocates gathered at an Amagansett fishing family’s home Thursday to demand a change to state law that allows enforcement officers the “unfettered” ability to seize and sell fish taken in enforcement actions. The request follows years of charges by several East End fishermen that state enforcement officers seized fish then sold it without any procedure for those charged to reclaim their property once they were later acquitted. Since the practice has come under criticism, the state has returned more than $10,000 to fishermen who were acquitted of charges. Among them were the Lester family, whose members in 2013 received a check for $202.25 for seized fish after they were acquitted of illegal fish possession. Read the rest here 20:09
Tappan Zee Bridge construction may be killing sturgeon
The environmental group Riverkeeper on Thursday called for a federal investigation to see if construction of the new Tappan Zee Bridge is causing the deaths of endangered sturgeon in the Hudson River. The group said 100 Atlantic and shortnose sturgeon have died since the start of construction in 2012. Many of the fish, which date back to pre-historic times, were found cut in half, severed at the head or mutilated, suggesting vessel strikes,,, Read the article here 19:46
Waldoboro Maine man pleads guilty to elver violations in NY
A Waldoboro man has been found guilty in New York of trafficking in poached elvers, according to that state’s Department of Environmental Conservation. Richard D. Austin, 37, has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of illegal commercialization of protected wildlife, the agency said Friday in a prepared statement. Austin and Tommy Waters Zhou, 40, of Brooklyn, New York, were arrested in March on charges of trafficking illegally harvested undersized American eels. Elvers are what American eels are called in their initial life stage,,, Read the rest here 13:10
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Dealings Criticized
A $1,000 check issued last month to Stuart Vorpahl, an East Hampton bayman, from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation as reimbursement for the 1998 seizure of fluke and lobsters from his boat was closely followed by a report from the state’s inspector general’s office critical of several of the D.E.C.’s enforcement practices as they relate to the commercial fishing industry. But the report itself is also coming under fire, both for its substance and for the lengthy delay in its issuance. Read the rest here 10:08
Long Island Fishermen Say Governor And Investigators Failed Them – Violating fishermen’s basic rights for decades
Commercial fishermen this week scoffed at a long-awaited report on an investigation of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, saying the report was a hollow failure by State Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott’s office to hold the DEC accountable for “institutionalized violations of fishermen’s basic rights for decades,” said an attorney who has represented several fishermen from East Hampton and Hampton Bays. Read the rest here 14:55
After scathing report, NY DEC changes policies on fish seizures, records
One of the main problems highlighted in the report dealt with restitutions. Ms. Leahy Scott’s investigation found DEC officers frequently seized catches when they suspected wrongdoing, such as a haul above the state limit or a lack of proper permits, per their common practice. However, the department failed to reimburse fishermen who were acquitted of charges or won court cases until her investigation began. In one instance, a Montauk fisherman was reimbursed last week after a $1,000 take that the DEC took from his boat. The incident occurred 17 years ago. Read the rest here 12:38New York Commercial Fishermen blast new Department of Environmental Conservation report
Commercial fishing advocates Thursday lambasted a new state report that criticizes New York’s top fisheries regulator. At a rally beside a commercial fishing trawler in Hampton Bays, two state lawmakers joined several dozen fishermen and fisherwomen and an attorney for fishermen in blasting the report as a “whitewash.” The report by the state inspector general, released on Wednesday, said the state Department of Environmental Conservation failed to process years of paperwork that fishermen are required to fill out every time they fish; DEC enforcement officers were improperly directing plea agreements, leading to possible “coercion” of defendants, and that property seized in arrests wasn’t returned after fishermen’s acquittals. Read the rest here 21:35:
“I’ll be goddamned,” – Stuart Vorpahl Reimbursed By State For Seized Fish, 17 Years Later
On a hot August afternoon 17 years ago, a state Department of Environmental Conservation officer, dressed in peat green fatigues, strode up to the side of Stuart Vorpahl’s trawler as it berthed along the bulkhead of Gann Road commercial docks in East Hampton. On the decks of his boat, the Polly & Ruth, Mr. Vorpahl had seven cartons worth of freshly caught fluke, iced and ready for market. “But to no avail,” Mr. Vorpahl would write in his captain’s log later that day, “when I got to the dock, DEC seized the fish [and] arrested me again for fishing without a license.” Read the rest here 14:43
Case against East End fisherman Bill Reed, charged with overfishing, thrown out
A Southampton judge on Friday dismissed a case mid-trial against an East End commercial fisherman charged with overfishing after he returned to port to avoid a storm. The case against Reed fell apart after Matthew Foster, an enforcement officer for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, and DEC official Steve Heins acknowledged on the witness stand that a “safe harbor” provision the agency uses to grant exceptions to its quota rules was “general practice” but never “written policy.” Read the rest here 16:40
SAFETY FIRST! Southampton commercial fisherman charged with exceeding state fluke limits
A Southampton commercial fisherman charged last week with exceeding state fluke limits by 630 pounds had informed authorities of his need to return to port because of bad weather, and will fight the charges, his lawyer said Wednesday. Bill Reed, who owns two commercial fishing boats at the Shinnecock Commercial Dock in Hampton Bays, said he encountered bad weather during a Jan. 6 fluke fishing trip 50 miles from the Long Island, and made a decision to return home. Read the rest here 20:18
New York: Bill Enabling Easier Transfer of Family Fishing Licenses is Now Law
The new law amends the environmental conservation law allowing the Department of Environmental Conservation to transfer certain commercial fishing licenses to immediate family members in cases where a license holder dies prior to transferring his or her license. Read more here 11:17
New York: Fishermen losing patience with probe of state regulators
The New York inspector general’s office plans to conclude its two-year probe of a state fisheries regulator “imminently,” but fishermen and their advocates awaiting long-promised action say they are losing patience. Three state legislators from Long Island have written to Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott, noting that they first requested a probe of the state Department of Environmental Conservation in May 2012, and that “no report has been issued.” <Read more here> 16:11
Commercial fishermen agrees to pay $15,000 fine for illegally spearfishing
A commercial boating captain and his crew pleaded guilty to illegally spearfishing in waters off Valiant Rock in Block Island Sound. Captain Christopher Miller must pay a fine of $15,000 and participate in community service, state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Regional Director Peter A. Scully announced today. Read more here 13:46
Former Passamaquoddy representative charged with poaching elvers in New York
A high-profile member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe is one of eight people who have been charged with felony elver poaching in New York, according to an official with that state’s Department of Environmental Conservation. Read more here 15:17
Locals reflect on dying industry as Sound closes to fall lobster harvesting
A third-generation lobsterman, Matt DeMaula has patrolled Long Island Sound alongside his father and uncles for more than two decades. When he thinks back to his early days in the profession, the Mattituck native can recall some remarkable fall seasons. A combination of rising water temperatures, low dissolved oxygen, pesticide runoff and nitrogen loading proved too much for the crustaceans, causing an extreme die-off in 1999, said Emerson Hasbrouck, senior marine environmental issues educator at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County. more@thesuffolktimes 10:47
LI fisherman’s death inspires change to permit law
Assemb. Fred Thiele on Thursday said he introduced legislation that would end a technicality barring commercial fishing licenses from being passed to family members who don’t live at the home of the original permit holder. more@longislandnewsday
