NOAA chief agrees to meet LI fishing community

The head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will visit Long Island to meet with commercial and recreational fishermen on their complaints about federal regulations.

Agency administrator Jane Lubchenco agreed to the request from Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) when the New York Democrat met her Wednesday in Washington. Schumer told Lubchenco it would be valuable for her to hear firsthand the economic impact of what he called imprecise and inflexible restrictions on the industry.

Schumer said he explained how recently released information showed NOAA's early estimates for the black sea bass catch in 2009 were too high and resulted in significantly lower catch quotas in 2010 for recreational fishermen.

He called for an immediate expansion of the season this year and Lubchenco said she would look into the issue.

Schumer praised Lubchenco for agreeing to meet members of the Long Island fishing community this summer to "explore how we can improve imprecise and inflexible regulations."

Local fishermen complain the quotas don't make sense and put them at a disadvantage with fishermen from neighboring states.

"Long Island's fishing industry pumps untold millions of dollars into New York's economy, keeps thousands of people employed in Long Island, is a fundamental part of our heritage and traditions, and is a major contributor to tourism," Schumer said.

"We need better science and more precise data to guide the decisions that govern when our fishing community can fish because right now we have outdated methods and imprecise data, based on inflexible regulations, that leads to bad decisions," he said.