Fisheries officials to speak about LI concerns at U.S. Senate hearing

Fisheries officials from Long Island will appear at a U.S. Senate hearing Tuesday morning to make the case for increasing New York's disproportionately lower share of the East Coast states' fishing quotas.

Both officials are expected to discuss the impact on Long Island and New York fisheries of federal management plans that give the state a lower share of vital species such as fluke based on flawed data and incomplete landing reports.

"This hearing is the culmination of nearly a decade's worth of work, and is New York's fishing community's day in the sun," U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. "They have been treated unequally for too long, and those of us who agree with them see [this] as the beginning of the end of that system. I feel strongly that if the system cannot be reformed administratively, the Congress needs to take a hard look at fixing the problem through legislation."

Among those testifying in the hearing, facilitated by Schumer, will be James Gilmore, director of the state Department of Environmental Conservation's Bureau of Marine Fisheries, and Emerson Hasbrouck, Cornell Cooperative Extension's marine program director emeritus senior natural resources specialist.

The video can be accessed at:

http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Home