Re: NY Fluke & Scup PROPOSAL
Are your Scup stocks so low that the state has to limit them? Years ago (back around 1985), when I lived in Massachusetts, we used to go "scupping" to supplement our income. We go out with a couple of rods, empty buckets, and a box of blood worms and would return with five or six 5-gallon buckets full of Scup. Off to the fish house we'd go where they'd be sorted and weighed...and we'd get paid.
Aahh...the good ole days!
There are 2 factors that cause concern for the stock of fluke and scup.
The first one is the gill netting of scup a few states further south (Virginia) .
Down there anything with fins on it is being destroyed by commercial greed.
Up here in the Long Island sound we have an Armada of charter boats that go out often twice a day and they also make a big dent in the stocks.Add to that the huge schools of bluefish,striped bass, and yes, seals,and you have both scup and fluke under very heavy fishing pressure.
The reason why the charter boats are allowed so much more than individual fisher men is mostly because the charter boat captains are organized through their chambers of commerce,whereas individual fisher men have no representation in the NY halls of power.
