Momentum builds to stop fishing license law

Fishing continues this fall in Island and South Fork waters as a lawsuit to stop a marine recreational license builds steam and support. Mike Loriz wrestled this striped bass aboard Dick Baker’s boat earlier this month.

Island anglers can continue to fish license free, town officials reported this week.
The injunction against a New York State marine fishing license is “becoming pretty indefinite,” Town Supervisor Jim Dougherty said at Friday’s Town Board meeting, and two more towns — Huntington and Brookhaven —  have joined the lawsuit filed by Shelter Island, Southampton and East Hampton challenging the state’s authority to regulate their water resources.
Town Attorney Laury Dowd received court papers Friday from the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) acknowledging that Attorney General Andrew Cuomo would not defend the agency in the state court suit; the case has been adjourned until mid-November. In withdrawing from the litigation, Mr. Cuomo cited problems in implementing the licenses and said that a hasty implementation of the law would “jeopardize” Long Island fishing communities. “In my opinion, the law should not take effect for several months,” he said in a statement issued last week and published in Newsday.
“I think Southampton deserves a pat on the back” for the lawsuit’s success thus far, Councilman Glenn Waddington said Friday. “They’re the ones who got this going.” Southampton Town Attorney Joseph Lombardo is the lead litigator for the suit based on the East End town’s colonial patent rights.
Southampton’s State Assemblymen Fred Thiele opposed the law creating the license from the outset. Mr. Thiele commended the Attorney General’s action. “Attorney General Cuomo has again demonstrated common sense that is often lacking in Albany,” he said in a press release.
Mr. Thiele said he will renew efforts to repeal the law; the senate adjourned for the year before acting on an earlier Thiele bill to postpone the license law until January 2010. Mr. Thiele has also requested that legislation be added to Governor David Paterson’s special session agenda for October 28, 2009 that would delay the enactment of the fishing license law until July 1, 2010. During that delay, license opponents could maneuver for a compromise to eliminate the license and replace it with a one-time, free registration program.
The state law establishing the license was developed in response to a federal one requiring better monitoring of recreational fishing harvests. The license law was adopted during the state budget process last spring and the fees it imposes — $10 per year for residents, $250 per year for charter boat captains — were expected to raise 3 million dollars for the state. The legislature set an October 1 start date for the license, requiring all recreational saltwater anglers to purchase a license that would only be good for three months; another license would have to be purchased in January good throughout 2010.
But implementing the new law was problematic. The DEC did not have a license distribution system in place when the law went into effect. The agency’s on-line licensing system, DECALS, couldn’t issue a three-month license; it had to be reprogrammed, which took weeks. Commercial license vendors also reported difficulties in getting information and licensing materials as did Town Clerk Dorothy Ogar, who issues hunting licenses for the state.
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer joined the effort to end the state license last week, calling on the federal government to create a free, life-time saltwater fishing license. The senator made a direct appeal to the U.S. Department of Commerce and the New York State DEC, asking them to set up a free, easy and convenient registration process for Long Island’s saltwater fishing community, describing the current system is “too onerous.”
“The bottom line is the current system places far too great a burden on Long Island anglers who are already struggling day to day,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement to the press. “This is not the time to change the system and impose new fees. While we must ensure that adequate scientific data is available to keep fishing stocks thriving, we can’t do it on the backs of fishermen.”
Mr. Schumer said that the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the federal law that governs fishing up and down the east coast, stipulates certain requirements for state programs to be in compliance with federal rules. However, those rules do not require that states impose a fee or an annual registration. The DEC can set up a new system that is free for fisherman and permanent, so they only have to register once in their lifetime, and still be in compliance with federal reporting requirements. Delaware is using such a system and New Jersey is considering one.
Mr. Schumer also wrote to the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration asking them to work with the DEC and local communities to ensure the new systems are in compliance.
The state Supreme Court injunction against the licenses in Shelter Island, Southampton and East Hampton waters, filed September 30, will continue at least through mid-November when Judge Patrick Sweeney has scheduled the court proceedings to reconvene.
At Friday’s meeting, Councilman Peter Reich couldn’t resist making a closing commentary: “There’s something fishy about this law.”