Judge issues injunction, blocks fishing license enforcement

A Suffolk County Court judge has blocked the state Department of Environmental Conservation from enforcing a new saltwater fishing license law in three East End towns.

Hours before it was set to take effect, Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice William Rebolini issued a temporary restraining order on Wednesday afternoon, September 30, barring the state from enforcing the controversial new license requirement in Southampton Town, East Hampton Town and on Shelter Island.

The restraining order is in effect until Tuesday, October 13, when attorneys representing the three towns are to appear before a different judge to argue the merits of the case, according to Judge Rebolini’s ruling. The Town of Southold is expected to have joined the injunction request by that time as well.

The injunction, while in effect, applies only to areas where the Town Trustees of the three towns have jurisdiction. It does not impact the license requirement in any way beyond the East End and would not apply to fishermen on boats outside of town waters or in Montauk, because the East Hampton Town Trustees’ authority does not include the Montauk area.

While the ocean is state waters, the restraining order does free surfcasters from having to carry the license when fishing between the east side of Moriches Inlet, where the Southampton Town Trustees’ jurisdiction begins, and the western boundary of Hither Hills State Park in Montauk, where the East Hampton Town Trustees jurisdiction ends, because enforcement of the license is barred within the Trustees’ jurisdiction.

“For all intents and purposes, the licensing law in our three towns doesn’t exist until October 13,” Assistant Southampton Town Attorney Joseph Lombardo said on Thursday, 
October 1. “If the Trustees have jurisdiction over the water, that’s where the injunction is good for, and there is to be no enforcement in the three towns.”

Wednesday’s court order does not address the merits of the Trustees’ case, it simply orders that the license not be enforced until the arguments can be reviewed more thoroughly. But the Trustees were happy to see that their case at least seemed to hold enough water to warrant the judge ordering things be held in check until it can be heard.

“They’re thinking about it. It gave them pause to at least give it consideration, so that’s important to us,” Southampton Town Trustee Jon Semlear said. “The judge, at least, thought it had enough merit to look into it further.”

Justice Patrick Sweeney, who will review the Trustees’ arguments against the license being enforced on the East End in the long run, will have the option of extending the injunction against enforcing the license while he reviews the merits of the case.

The new saltwater license has drawn criticism from across the state and from public officials on Long Island, where the vast majority of the state’s saltwater fishermen reside. It is the first time a license has ever been required for fishing in saltwaters in New York State. The license will cost state residents $10 annually or $150 for a lifetime pass.

At a press conference outside the Suffolk County Supreme Court building in Riverhead on Wednesday, while the attorneys for the Trustees were filing the restraining order request, members of the East Hampton and Southampton town boards of trustees and other local elected officials blasted the license regulations.

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. said that while the state has imposed the new license fee on its residents, no new programs to benefit fishermen or fisheries have been created. The money, he said, is just being used to pay for existing programs and the salaries of employees that have been cut from the state budget during the recent fiscal crisis.

“It’s just one more thing they’re charging us for, and where is it going to stop?” East Hampton Town Trustee Stephanie Talmage said. “We have to take a stand somewhere. People say it’s only $10, but it will just get more and more.”

The Trustees in the three towns are challenging the state’s right to impose such a fee on their residents since their centuries-old boards still derive their authority from 17th century colonial writs that guaranteed that the town’s residents could “fish and fowl” on 
town waters for free and without hindrance from any outside agencies. When the State of New York was formed, the colonial-era laws were ratified within the state constitution, the Trustees argue, and mean the Trustees authority should still supersede state law.