The button above may be used to reserve seats on the bus leaving from Captree Boat Basin at 6AM, Feb. 24th, to Washington, DC, for the Fishermens' March. Seats on the SHB bus can also be reserved from this button. Each seat will cost $40. It will depart DC at 3PM. Please put your name and phone number in the box provided so we know who you are and we can contact you for any necessary updates.
This button is for DONATIONS to the LAWSUIT BEING BROUGHT BY NY STATE, UBNY, NYFTTA, and FCA to CHANGE FLUKE REGULATIONS THAT ARE CRIPPLING NEW YORK RECREATIONAL FISHERMEN.
PLEASE DONATE WHATEVER AMOUNT YOU ARE COMFORTABLE WITH. NO AMOUNT IS TOO SMALL! A COUPLE OF DOLLARS FROM HALF OF THE FISHERMEN THAT READ THIS WILL MAKE GOOD THINGS HAPPEN! All monies received from this page, aside from PayPal fees, will go directly to legal fees involved w/ this lawsuit only. If you would like to send a check instead, please send it to:
UBNY
PO Box 191
Bayport, NY 11705
PLEASE DONATE NOW, AND WHENEVER ELSE YOU ARE ABLE.
The following overview was written in 2003, about the problem we were having that year. Although very similar, the reductions we are facing for fluke in 2009 are much more severe, like one fish at twenty-one inches for a six week season. If we're lucky.
Paul
LAWS
IN OPERATION
One of
the most effective points of the Magnuson Act is the short
period of time in which the Optimum Yield (OY) is to be
reached. It is very difficult to
rebuild fish stocks in such short periods of time without
affecting
commercial and recreational anglers severely, or economically
impacting fishing
communities and even forcing some members out of the picture.
The OY is described as
being the "catch" that has the greatest overall
benefits, including
economical, social, and biological. Increasingly, the biological
benefit has all but
eliminated the others.
The Act states that a species should be managed as a whole
throughout it's
range, and management measures should not discriminate between
members of
different states. Unfortunately, we know this is not the
case. Many states believe
they deserve a larger portion of each quota, and there is
always resistance
when coastwise regulations are proposed. States that are
under quota for a
year are reluctant to accept less for the following year
because other states
have gone over quota.
The management of all species shall be based upon the best
available data.
Sadly, many of our fisheries catch estimates are based upon
Marine Recreational
Fishing Statistics Survey (MRFSS). There are two stages to
the MRFSS method.
There are random telephone interviews, such as you get at night during
dinner, and intercepts, where anglers departing trips are interviewed. The
MRFSS
telephone survey is not designed to get recreational catch information; it
is
designed to get recreational fishing effort information. The dockside intercept
survey gets the catch information. The two data sets are multiplied to get
the catch estimate. MRFSS was never designed to monitor catches against
regulatory quotas, whether on a coast-wide, regional, or state-by-state basis.
However, the MRFSS data is the only data set that exists that compares quotas
to
catch estimates, so it's what they have to use. The underlying statistical
design of the MRFSS survey does not produce valid catch estimates even for
the
purpose for which the survey was intended. The survey's results are supposed
to be
statistically valid at an individual state basis, although they are based on
regions. This year's (2003) MRFSS data was extremely out of sorts. It claims
that New York State harvested 100% more fluke than last year, and anglers
took 27% more trips. Most New Yorkers can see this is a terrible mistake, as
generally speaking, tackle shops and party boats have seen an average of a
20%
decline in business over the past year.
As a
result of the MRFFS data, the current laws have found that
New York has overfished fluke and porgies. Fluke were supposedly
overfished by almost
double, requiring a 48% reduction in landings for this year.
That would look
something like 3 keepers per person at a minimum length of
18", with a season from
May 9 to September 21. Porgies were supposedly overfished
by two and a half
times. This would require a reduction of 53% for this year.
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