New Group Rallies For Legislative Overhaul Of Environmental Agency

Frustrated with long-awaited suggestions for reforms of the State Department of Environmental Conservation’s fisheries enforcement, a fishermen’s representative is rallying fishermen and anyone connected to the commercial and recreational fishing industries to appeal to lawmakers to force sweeping changes within the agency.

Southampton attorney Daniel Rodgers, who has represented local fishermen in two much-publicized criminal cases, said that he has created a new political action group, New York Fish, for those in the fishery business who are eager to see changes within the DEC’s Fisheries Division.

Mr. Rodgers says that an investigation of DEC enforcement practices by the state inspector general’s office is too long in coming, and fishermen of all persuasions need to press for fundamental changes themselves.

“Since the State of New York is not going to help us, we’re going to appeal directly to our lawmakers and try to persuade them to change state law to benefit fishermen on all sides,” Mr. Rodgers said this week. “We can’t wait any longer for the state or for the governor—they’ve been no help to us.”

Earlier this month Mr. Rodgers set up a website, NewYorkFish.org, as the sounding board for the effort to rally fishing industry interests to action. He says that about 70 people had joined New York Fish as of Monday morning, including commercial and sport fishermen, bait and tackle shop owners, seafood shop owners, and the chef of a popular New York City restaurant.

Mr. Rodgers represented East Hampton baymen Danny and Paul Lester when they fought charges of overfishing by the DEC that resulted in more than $1,000 worth of their catch being seized. The charges were ultimately dismissed by a judge, but the fishermen have yet to be reimbursed for the lost catch revenue.

Mr. Rodgers also represented Hampton Bays fisherman Bill Reed, who was also charged with overfishing this past winter after he returned to Shinnecock Bay with a load of fish intended for a New Jersey port that did not conform to New York fishing regulations. Mr. Reed’s charges were similarly dismissed by a judge.

The attorney has been an outspoken critic of the DEC and of the state inspector general’s office for the lagging effort to overhaul the way fisheries are enforced in the state.

“Over the course of the last month, we’ve been getting leaks from reliable sources about the substance of the IG’s report, and I’ve been told: ‘Prepare to be disappointed,’” Mr. Rodgers said. “We’re told that the report is going to say this was all just a failure by the agency to communicate effectively.”

Perhaps the biggest hurdle to organizing effective political pressure, Mr. Rodgers admits, will come from what should be the guts of New York Fish: fishermen. Commercial fishermen and recreational fishermen, and their differing interests, rarely see eye-to-eye about how fisheries should be managed.

“But there is a lot that everybody can agree on,” the lawyer said, pointing to water quality degradation from nitrogen loading and power plants emissions. “The DEC is quite comfortable letting fishermen take the blame for the depletion of our fisheries. But I see a DEC that is not doing its job to protect the health of our waters, and that is something that effects everybody equally.”