LI lobstermen facing 10% catch reduction

Long Island lobstermen will face a 10 percent catch reduction in 2013, a cut intended to protect dwindling lobster populations while still allowing fishermen to scratch out a living.

Regional fisheries regulators approved the measure this week at a meeting in Boston.

The reduction is a far milder measure than the five-year moratorium first proposed last year to help restore declining lobster stocks in waters south of Cape Cod.

Still, the move found little favor among local lobstermen already beset by economic woes and record-low harvests in Long Island Sound. Lobsters there have yet to recover from a catastrophic die-off in 1999, and some fishermen are giving up entirely.

"There's nothing left out there," said Kings Park-based lobsterman Danny Staffieri, who fishes the deep waters of Smithtown Bay and Long Island Sound near the Connecticut border.

Lobsters in these waters have nearly disappeared, but the fishermen said they aren't to blame.

They point the finger at hungry predators such as bluefish, porgies and conch that gobble up juvenile lobsters. Some also suspect lobsters have been poisoned by pesticides sprayed to control mosquitoes -- something scientists say has less to do with the decline than rising water temperatures, which make lobsters more susceptible to disease.

Staffieri said his take this summer was about 700 pounds, compared with more than 4,000 pounds in past years. Worse, he said, there was a marked increase in the number of dead lobsters pulled up in pots.

John German, president of the Long Island Sound Lobstermen's Association, said the reduced catch will cause a 10 percent to 25 percent drop in the earnings of lobstermen.

"Cut their salaries 10 percent this year and by 25 percent next and see what they say," he said of regulators. "They're fishcrats. All they do is move paper."