How Awful Will Next Year Be For Fluke Fishermen?
Unless regulators provide a less abrupt alternative, the amount of fluke caught by commercial and sport fishermen could be nearly cut in half by next year — a sudden drop that might seriously wound the charter fishing fleet in Sheepshead Bay.
Captain Anthony DiLernia, one of New York’s representatives in the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, said lower-than-expected fluke stocks found during fish population surveys will require slashing quotas by as much as 45 percent next season. However, DiLernia said the council is considering spreading that reduction out over several years in order to lessen the blow to fishermen.
“A 45 percent reduction will devastate the fishing industry,” DiLernia said. “But the alternative would be about a 25 percent reduction for three years in a row.”
“It’s like taking a loan,” he said of the proposal, which would reduce fluke quotas a total of 75 percent by the end of the three-year period. “If you don’t pay it all up front, you have to pay interest back because you’re going to be depleting [the stocks during that time].”
Captain Dan Lind, who owns Sheepshead Bay charter boats Golden Sunshine and Ranger VI, said a sudden drop in fluke quotas would be “a knife in the jugular” for his business.
“The quotas are absolutely directly proportional to how many people we carry on our boats,” he explained. “In this business, there’s not a giant profit margin where you make a zillion dollars. If you start carrying less people, it’s not enough to sustain the boats.”
Lind argued the regulations were already too stringent and caused boat owners to seek other forms of revenue. Many, including Lind, have started chartering their ships for private parties, a practice that irks some in the community who say ocean-faring revelers disturb the neighborhood by coming to shore rowdy and drunk.
“Twenty-two years ago, when I became a captain, this dock was full of fishing boats. But you have to evolve,” Lind explained. “Now we take parties and do anything else that will help bring in money.”
DiLernia said any challenge to spreading the reduction over a three-year period would come from environmental groups, who are fighting for strong federal fishing regulations. Immediately dropping next year’s quotas by 45 percent would make a fluke recovery more likely, he explained.
However, DiLernia said all members of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council support the plan to trim catches by 25 percent for three years.
“No one on the coast wants to see a 45 percent reduction next year,” said DiLernia, noting that Governor Andrew Cuomo called to ask if there was a way to mitigate the impact on fishermen. “The question then becomes whether it’s going to pass the lawyers in Washington.”
The council will discuss next year’s fluke regulations on August 12. The final decision will be announced mid-February. The next fluke season begins in May 2016.