Schumer: Fluke Fairness Could Be On The Way For New York's Recreational Fishermen

BABYLON, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) - Sen. Charles Schumer has announced that fluke fairness may be coming for New York fishermen.

Currently, fishermen in New York cannot catch as many fluke as fishermen in Connecticut or New Jersey.

As WCBS 880 Long Island Bureau Chief Mike Xirinachs reported, it appears the federal Fisheries Council is prepared to establish new guidelines after decades of fighting for a fairer, regional fluke fishing quota for New York's recreational fishermen.

"One that will lay the path to establishing permanent fluke fairness," Schumer said at a press conference in front of Long Island's Captree fishing fleet in Babylon on Monday. "The limits are discriminatory, plain and simple. They hurt New York disproportionately."

The senator anticipates guideline changes in time for the 2014 season, establishing the same rules for New York and New Jersey fishermen.

Long Island fishermen said the proposed guidelines are long overdue.

"We've had a bigger size limit than New Jersey for years, we've had a shorter season, smaller bag limit," fisherman Neil Delanoy told Xirinachs. "A fish doesn't know if he's in New Jersey or in New York. They swim back and forth."

Fishermen say the issue is about both fish and economics.

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