The DEC Needs More Funding

This will probably not be a popular suggestion and, no, it’s not an April Fools prank, but I think it’s time that New York State dedicate more funding to staffing and supporting its Environmental Conservation Officer staff and fishermen surveys on Long Island.

Fishing rules are getting very complicated these days, there are more people fishing than ever, more people who are wholly uneducated about or uncaring about current and changing regulations and we are entering a very critical time in the rebuilding of some fish stocks that need vigilance and enforcement of the rules that have, like them or not, been very effective when implemented and followed.

Nobody likes it when the green boat points its bow your way. But really, if you are following the rules, you shouldn’t be very bothered by it. It’s not like getting pulled over by a cop on the road, and god knows what rule we are all breaking all the time they might have nailed you for. When the DEC comes calling, you know what rules you are breaking. If you aren’t breaking any rules, in my experience, they are back under way within 3 or 4 minutes.

Right now, the DEC has only four or five EnCon officers working all of Long Island at any one time. That is a ridiculously paltry force considering all the laws they are tasked with enforcing beyond just hunting and fishing regulations. At best, that means the DEC boat in Montauk is running one or two patrols per week of the busiest fishing grounds in the state.

And we need enforcement. Human nature is what it is. In fishing, especially, we are often over the horizon, shrouded in darkness or distanced from the prying eyes of others and success can come in scattered bursts separated by long stretches of failure that can invite the feeling that you “deserve” a robust bounty on the good day and are unlikely to get caught. That is when the real fear of enforcement is just a crutch for our sense of right and wrong. You may think the rules are stupid and unnecessary (you’re wrong), but you know the rules and being afraid of getting busted is all we usually need to keep us rather happily on the straight and narrow.

Now, there are some catches in this need for better enforcement. The DEC and its officers have been accused before of unfair treatment of some fishermen, particularly commercial fishermen, and have at times been overzealous in their pursuit of finding wrongdoing when it may not necessarily be present.

I’ve been critical in this column before following some occasions when officers have clearly put the letter of a law ahead of the spirit of a law: like throwing the book at a handful of fishermen for breaking an unheard of rule against using cast nets to catch a few dozen pounds of squid, which a single commercial boat can catch dozens of tons of in a single day; or a multi-day sting operation to net a deer hunter for using bait in East Hampton, while entire towns are struggling to find ways to get hunters to kill MORE deer. Such issues need to be reined in, not only because they are a failure of the mission of enforcement but also because they only serve to engender hatred and distrust of the officers that people actually need to respect.

The men in the green suits, as they are not affectionately known on the water, have a thankless job, literally. They are spread so thin they can’t possibly catch the wrong-doers 99.9% of the time, even when they know who they are. That breeds frustration which breeds resentment and can lead to overzealousness. Again, human nature.

New York State has never dedicated enough funding to enforcing its environmental conservation rules. Yes, our taxes are high and that is an easy corner of the budget to cut from because it really brings zero political upside and the negative effects won’t be realized until someone else is in charge.

The state made an ill-fated decision to try and roll out a saltwater fishing license and direct the funding into a DEC operations fund that would go to cover salaries for EnCon officers that would be cut from the struggling state budget. This was a horrible approach and was then fumbled disastrously, leading to the unraveling of the license proposal altogether. And that was a shame because the license, the fees charged for it and the idea that funding is needed to help fish stocks were all good ideas. Now New York is almost the only state that doesn’t charge at least out-of-state residents for a saltwater fishing license and loses out on millions of dollars in revenue that can be put to very good use.

The license was the right idea. MORE funding for DEC enforcement, not just the same funding from a different source, is the right idea. Circle hooks for striped bass is the right idea, but without anyone to make sure that people are following the rules, it’s only an idea.

Flounder season opens today! Did anyone tell the flounder? First person to send me a photo of flounder (keeper or flier, I don’t care, any flounder will do) will have a Southampton Press or East Hampton Press hat waiting for them at our offices.

Catch ‘em up. See you out there.