April 24, 2014 — For most of the last decade local anglers have seen a cloud of anxiety shadow the opening of fluke season because of ever-tightening regulations. This year things are different.
Although new regulations have yet to be officially adopted in New York State, a fluke season of May 17 to Sept. 21, minimum size limit of 18 inches, and reasonable daily creel limit of five fish should be ratified shortly by the state legislature.
With fluke now managed from a regional perspective that pools the quota between New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, the same size and creel limits will apply to anglers from our neighboring states for the first time in a decade.
"This is a great start," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer in a telephone interview last week, "but we can't stop here. The current legislation brings fairness to fluke quotas and regulations throughout our region, but it is in effect for one year only and must be reapproved to continue in 2015. That's one reason I'm pushing forward with the Fluke Fairness Act I announced last fall."
According to Schumer, the Fluke Fairness Act will be included in a bipartisan proposal to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the federal law that governs the nation's fisheries. The reauthorization proposal is sponsored by Senators March Begich (D-Ark.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and should be introduced to the Senate within weeks. The purpose of the rule is to permanently level the playing field for all fluke anglers along the East Coast by requiring federal regulators to use the best science and most up-to-date data when making fisheries management decisions.
"This is a goal we've worked toward for a long time: to build fluke fairness into the underlying fisheries bill," Schumer said. "Passage of the bill would mean New York's fluke fans would no longer have to battle year after year to maintain their gains."
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