New Fluke Reg's 7/15/04

[RJ]

Found out today...those with Federal Fish permits....such as charter and party boats are restricted to only 1 fluke per person of 18 inches when in FEDERAL waters...

In other words...3 miles off the beach or more.

I am not sure if the same is true for an angler on their own private boat fishing the same area or not.

I spoke with Byron Young of the DEC this morning and Capt. Bob Wiegand of the Flamingo III in Gerritsen Beach. Bob said NMFS sent this letter of notiicaton to Federal permit holders...but Byron said the DEC did not receive such letter....yet! Not unusual for NMFS to forget someone...

Byron is also not sure how this impacts private boaters as well...we'l have to wait and see...BUT...

let's not panic and vacate our friendly party and charter boats...none of this is really official yet till we find out what is going on.

[Big Keepers]

Three miles off the beach, does that include the Sound? I mean technically Long Island Sound is either NY or CT.

[RJ]

Not sure about much of this...although you are right as the middle of the Sound is the border between the two states...but where the distance between the two is greater than six miles...there must be federal water in between...right?