The complete Public Information Document (PID) on Amendment 4 to the Interstate Management Plan for Weakfish can be found at
http://www.fdny.net/weakpid.pdf The public comment period is over but once recommendations are in place there will be a set of coast-wide hearings to gather public input on the plan. I believe the timetable is to have everything in place for new coastal regulations by next year.
I am the New York State recreational advisor on the Advisory Panel (AP) for weakfish and there?s a meeting set the week of May 20 for both the AP and the board to hammer out what options will be given for final public comment. I?ll keep all of our Noreast.com users informed throughout the process.
I recommend you read the document as it provides some great insight into the plan and history behind it.
Remember, this is a coast wide plan bringing many players with different agendas to the table trying to reach a common goal of continuing the restoration of the fishery. Some sticky points will be minimum size limits and whether or not there should be an increase in the coastal minimum size and bag limits and the increase in commercial by-catch.
There is also going to be an effort from North Carolina to re-introduce the fly-net fishery that was eliminated a few years ago. Many on both the board and the AP feel the closing of that fishery is what has helped bring back the weakfish, and that opening this fishery again would be a set-back. Although I?m not all that familiar with that fishery I?ve been told that it consisted of mostly 6-8 inch juvenile weakfish, and I can?t imagine that being anything other than destructive.
New Yorkers for the most part should like what they see in the PID because some of the suggestions would bring other states in line with our already restrictive measures. At 6 fish at 16-inches we have both the largest minimum size and lowest bag limit of all the states involved in the fishery. For example NJ and DE have a 14 ?inch minimum and a 14-fish bag limit, and if you look at the figures you will see that NJ takes more weakfish than NY, CT, RI and MA combined. The rest of the NE states all have 16-inch minimums but no bag limit except for MA, which has a 12-fish limit.
As you head further south the restrictions both NC and VA have 12-inch minimums during parts of the season. So as you can see it?s not going to be an easy task to satisfy everyone, but the important thing is that we find a way to continue the rebuilding of this once vibrant fishery.
Opinari,
These recommendations will not effect our local regulations that include the current Great South Bay spawning closure, but they could affect our gill-netters by allowing them an increase in the by-catch from 150-pounnds to 300-pounds.
At the hearing last week I listened to a number of gill netters explain that they get them as a by-catch during the summer closure and that they get up to $1.50 per pound that time of year. My problem with that is a 300-pound by-catch will instantly become a directed fishery. As for the pin hookers, they are not allowed part of the by-catch because that would be considered a directed fishery. There was some debate as to whether or not that was fair to the commercial hook and line fishermen and it may be addressed in the final public document.
