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Good Afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the 

 Subcommittee. On behalf of Commissioner Thomas C. Jorling, I 

 would like to thank the Subcommittee for inviting the New York 

 State Department of Environmental Conservation to testify on the 

 vital subject of managing the migratory marine and anadromous 

 fisheries of the Atlantic coast. 



Many species of finfish, crustaceans, and shellfish have 

 been over-harvested by both commercial and recreational fishermen 

 from New York and other coastal states. Important fish stocks 

 such as summer flounder, winter flounder, scup, weakfish, sea 

 bass and cod have been depleted because of overfishing. In order 

 to provide future generations with a sustained harvest, coastal 

 fishery resources must be better managed and fishery abundance 

 must be increased. 



Essentially all of New York State's principal marine and 

 estuarine fisheries are migratory and require cooperative 

 management by many coastal states and the federal government. 

 Established mechanisms exist for determining the management needs 

 and implementing Fishery Management Plans interjurisdictional 

 fisheries. In the Exclusive Economic Zone (the zone extending 

 from three miles offshore to 200 miles) , such management plans 

 are prepared by Federal Fishery Management Councils, which 

 include states among their members, and must be approved by the 

 Federal National Marine Fisheries Service. For fisheries in 

 state waters, management plans are prepared and adopted by the 

 Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. In Lakes Erie and 

 Ontario, Fisheries Management Plans called lake Plans have been 

 developed for the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission. The 

 recommendations of such plans must then be implemented by each 

 participating state for a plan to be effective. 



In 1990 Governor Cuomo appointed a Task Force of citizens, 

 scientists and State agency representatives to assess the status 

 and needs of New York's coastal resources and management program. 

 Among the many issues addressed by the Governor's Task Force on 

 Coastal Resources was the management of fishery resources. One 

 recommendation of the final report, issued in November 1991, was 

 that New York State urge Congress to adopt federal legislation 

 that penalizes states for non-compliance with management plans 

 adopted by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. As 

 you know Mr. Chairman, the Atlantic Striped Bass Conservation Act 

 adopted several years ago requires states to implement the 

 provisions of the Commission's Striped Bass Plan under penalty of 

 a federal moratorium on fishing for striped bass in the offending 

 state's water. That Act has effectively assured that all states 

 have implemented the provisions of the Striped Bass Plan. New 

 York State urges that its enforcement provisions be extended to 

 other species such as bluefish, fluke, weakfish and lobster for 

 which a number of individual states have not adopted the 

 Commission's management recommendations. 



The Task Force's recommendation recognizes that restrictive 

 management measures to control fishing mortality need to be 

 implemented in virtually all inshore interjurisdictional 

 fisheries of the east coast. However, while states and their 

 scientific advisors may agree readily on how and how much to 

 reduce exploitation, individual states frequently find it 

 difficult to pass legislation or adopt regulations when 

 confronted with strong opposition. If key states fail to 

 implement needed regulation, an entire coastwide management 

 strategy may fail, and an important fishery could collapse. 

 Moreover, when some states adopt restrictive regulations, but 

 their neighbors do not, strong pressures emerge for states to 

 backslide into non-compliance. Legislation which authorizes the 

 federal government to intervene only when an individual state has 

 been unable to implement measures agreed to by the states jointly 

 through the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission preserves 

 an appropriate balance between state and federal interests in 



