Seven Long Island towns are making an old argument against the state’s new saltwater fishing license.
The towns argue that Colonial-era fishing rights exempt them from the requirement and have won court orders temporarily preventing the state from enforcing licensing off their shores.
New York claims coastal jurisdiction for three miles out and began requiring saltwater licenses Oct. 1. The state has collected $2.57 million selling 142,085 licenses, including 4,105 sold in the seven Long Island towns.
The towns’ court challenge against the licenses appears headed to trial this summer in Suffolk County. A conference is set June 24. Meanwhile, Department of Environmental Conservation lawyers are appealing a preliminary injunction and a judge’s refusal to dismiss the towns’ complaints.
In a relatively unusual move, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, now running for governor, declined to take up the case on behalf of the state. He cited concerns about how the law would affect Long Island fishing communities and left the case in the hands of DEC lawyers.
“DEC will continue to assert that the rights granted under the Colonial patents were superseded by the New York State Constitution and the state Legislature’s enactment of the Environmental Conservation Law,” agency spokeswoman Lori Severino said. That law authorizes the DEC to regulate and manage all the state’s fisheries, including free-swimming marine and migratory fish covered by the new license, she said.
The seven towns are Southampton, East Hampton, Shelter Island, Brookhaven, Oyster Bay, Huntington and Southold. Town attorneys first won a temporary restraining order in October for local waters. They claim that eastern Long Island fishermen have had the right to fish free for more than 300 years and that the control of town waters was granted to their trustees under the Dongan and Nicolls patents.
“We come together to send a clear message to government that these rights we possess are still valid and we demand recognition,” Southampton Trustee Eric Shultz told the Sag Harbor News.
Under the state regulations, charter fishing boats off New York shores also need a $400 annual recreational fishing license that covers all their passengers.
The saltwater licenses were proposed by Gov. David Paterson’s administration and adopted by the Legislature in 2009. Individual licenses are generally required for fishermen 16 and older, and are available at stores that sell fishing gear. They cost state residents $4 for a day, $8 for a week and $10 for a year of fishing off New York City and Long Island, as well as the Hudson River below the Tappan Zee Bridge.
Separate state freshwater fishing licenses, which cost residents $5 per day and $29 for the year, are required for lakes, rivers, streams and generally for the Hudson above the Tappan Zee. The saltwater licenses are also required for fishermen pursuing migratory fish from the sea like striped bass.
The fees were expected to generate up to $3 million annually for the cash-strapped state while charging sportsmen roughly the cost of one good lure.
They also bring New York in line with a federal mandate to document U.S. fisheries. That federal law would impose a federal license fee for New York starting in 2011 unless the state enacted its own measure. Fifteen coastal states have done that.
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer last fall advocated a free registration system. The senior New York Democrat said, “The bottom line is the current system places far too great a burden on Long Island anglers who are already struggling day to day.”
Cuomo, whose duties by law include defending the governor and his agencies in court, said while the licensing measure’s aims were valid, part of the federal effort to preserve fisheries, “hasty implementation” and unfair enforcement would jeopardize Long Island fishing communities.
He decided six months ago not exercise his discretion and not represent the state.
Cuomo also declined to defend Paterson when he appointed Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch last year and state senators sued. Cuomo said he believed the appointment was unconstitutional.
Instead, Paterson hired a constitutional expert, attorney Kathleen Sullivan, who won the case and sent the state a bill for $1 million.
Online: New York saltwater fishing licenses: http://www.dec.ny.gov/permits/54950.html
By MICHAEL VIRTANEN,Associated Press Writer
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.