February 2, 2016 — WASHINGTON – Connecticut’s lawmakers and state officials are trying to derail a bill would take about 150 square miles of Long Island Sound waters from federal government control and give that authority to New York and Rhode Island, a move that could hurt the state’s fishing industry.
The bill would require Connecticut fishermen to obtain permission from the neighboring states to continue to fish those waters, known as an “exclusive economic zone,” or EEZ. Members of the state’s congressional delegation say that would be a costly and burdensome process.
“We believe that this misguided legislation was crafted strategically to benefit certain states while disproportionately harming the Connecticut fishing industry,” delegation members said in a letter to the leaders of the House Natural Resources Committee.
At issue is the “EEZ Clarification Act,” sponsored by New York Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin, that would re-designate 150 square miles of federal EEZ waters in the vicinity of Block Island, between Montauk, N.Y., and Point Judith, R.I., as New York and Rhode Island state waters.
At a House Natural Resources subcommittee hearing Tuesday, Zeldin said the strip of water known as the EEZ poses a threat to fishermen “who can go from fishing legally to breaking the law” by inadvertently straying into federal waters and facing fines.
“Law-abiding, responsible fishermen should not be punished for doing their job,” Zeldin said.
But a representative from the Fish and Wildlife Service and conservationist John McMurray, owner of One More Cast Charters, testified that stripping federal protections from the waters would hurt the Long Island Sound striped bass population.
Read the full story at The Connecticut Mirror