October 10, 2017 — Several dozen fishermen, women and lawmakers last week urged Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to make good on a promise to sue the federal government over New York’s disproportionately low share of the fluke fishery.
At a meeting at East Hampton Town Hall last Wednesday, the gathering of fishing interests sought to unify their agenda before a meeting with top state officials scheduled for next month.
The commercial fishery for fluke was shut down in September for the first time in recent memory. It reopened Oct. 1 with a 50-pound daily limit. New York gets 7.6 percent of the commercial fluke quota, while North Carolina and Virginia get more than 20 percent each.
Chuck Morici, a Montauk commercial fisherman, used an empty fish basket to demonstrate the inequities. New York’s current daily quota fills the basket by about a third, he said, while boats from Virginia can take 153 baskets — about 10,000 pounds.