THE deaths of western Long Island Sound lobsters have increased dramatically in recent months, effectively ending a $100 million a year industry, yet despite the efforts by state regulatory agencies in New York and Connecticut there is no conclusive reason for their deaths.
The national fisheries group FISH Unlimited has announced that it will begin an independent sampling program to determine the causes of the lobsters’ deaths. The testing program will look specifically at the pesticides that were in dredge spoils from Mamaroneck Harbor and that were dumped in the Sound by the Army Corps of Engineers.
“We’re looking forward to this testing which we feel will finally get to the bottom of the lobster kill,” said Bill Smith, Executive Director of FISH Unlimited. “We have long suspected contamination as the cause of this catastrophe, and feel that independent testing such as this will now confirm it.”
Smith says that information that FISH Unlimited has received from the Army Corps, and other sources, show alarming levels of pesticides and other poisons in the contaminated dredge spoil that was dumped in the Sound.
Contributing to the study will be David Brubaker, Ph.D., from Johns Hopkins’ University School of Public Health.
“We are concerned about this environmental tragedy, not only for the condition of the lobster fishery in Long Island Sound, but because of the national and international implications this situation raises. This groundbreaking study will give us the answers that we need.”
You must remember, that this is the same Army Corps of Engineers that is looking to dump contaminated dredge spoils, taken from the Kill Van Kull and other water ways around New York and New Jersey, just 10 miles off our beaches. At public hearings, which have been controled by the Army Corps and members of the Long Shoreman’s union, we have been assured that dredging materials will in no way affect our beaches, marine life or our health.
Just like in Long Island Sound.
On the heels of the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife’s announcement that hunters harvested a record number of deer this past season, state officials are now looking into the possibility of lifting New Jersey’s 97-year-old ban on Sunday hunting.
The deer hunting ban has always seemed inconsistent since other shooting sports are permitted on Sundays and fishing has always been allowed. The bottom line is that a lot of hunters don’t have the time to get out in the woods anymore. Now they might have the chance to enjoy themselves and thin the deer herd at the same time.
The real problem is that the growing deer population is eating up crops and chewing up scenery across the state. State officials say more than 15,000 deer were found dead or dying on New Jersey’s highways in 1998, almost twice the number found just a decade ago.
It appears that there will be some changes in striped bass regulations this year. Under amendment 5 of the Striped Bass Fisheries Management Plan, states will be allowed two fish at 28 inches recreationally along the Atlantic coast. Some states have stayed more restrictive. New Hampshire allows one fish at 32 inches and Maine has a slot limit.
The producing areas like Hudson River, Delaware Bay and Chesapeake Bay are allowed a smaller fish.
New York has not yet finalized its plans for the coming season, but we could remain the same, or allow everyone to take two stripers.
