commercial sea bass closed

[onitis]

Does anyone know when it will reopen.I thought it was stupid to have one week with 100lbs per day and the rest of the season 50lbs per day perhaps this is why it closed??

[EC NEWELLMAN]

Good question.......Go to the July 17 - 7pm meeting at the DEC bunker to find out why....the commercial TAC for NYS was 123,000 lbs for 2012. The trip limits were purposely made very small so that you could fish through the season with such a small TAC.

If I would venture (and it's just a guess), with this being the July 4th week, there would be a very small number of fishermen fishing that week, thus landings.

[fetchdup]

OK, Here's the deal on the Sea Bass Quotas and the closure. We have a very small quota to work on with Sea Bass. The reason for the one week @ 100 lbs. was to give something to the pot fishermen to work on when the price is up. The reason for the closure is to insure that we have some quota remaining for the Fall fishery. It's all about managing the quota that you have.

[EC NEWELLMAN]

I just wonder how many sea bass 'pot fishermen' are left in NYS, and last as I was told, was a few guys working the eastern end of Long Island Sound. Normally most fin fish prices are not the best at this time of the season, both consumer retail and restaurant trade, as people generally look for either grilling type fish along with crabs, crab meat, shrimp and lobsters.

[fetchdup]

Hi Steve, The largest group of pot fishermen are on the South Shore around the Siinnecock area. There are probably more than you think. As for the price, it usually goes up in the Summer because of the Summer tourist trade in the restaurants, particularly out East. This restaurant trade effects the price of many fish in our area. There many not be a large number of pot fishermen, but they are vocal and well represented at council meetings.