Improve water gualitVo The probable effect of improving water quality 

 will be greater species diversity and greater availability of fishery nursery 

 areas, and spa^^7ning groundso With the passage of the national law restricting 

 the use of DDT, some of these effects may have already been observedo It is 

 hypothesized that certain species (shrimp, blue crabs and fiddler crabs) have 

 shown increasing population levels as a result of improved water quality o Clean 

 water will also increase availability of shellfish populationso Improved water 

 quality will benefit the Sound's natural resources and will provide for more 

 aesthetically pleasing surroundings^ Greater opportunities for recreational 

 and commercial fishing are expectedo 



Some of the major disadvantages to upgrading water quality include 

 the tremendous cost of advanced sewage treatment and the increased costs of goods 

 passed on to the consumer by industry because of more stringent effluent 

 standards which result in increased production costs o Other problems foreseen 

 are the socio-economic impacts involved with transferring septic systems to 

 sewage plant treatment o 



Improve fisheries habitato Habitat improvement would result in 

 increased production of finfish and shellfish, provided water quality were 

 upgradedo The major programs dealing with habitat improvement involve 

 (l) establishment of artificial reefs which enhance habitat for species such 

 as tautog, scup, and black sea bass, (2) improvement of wetland areas, and 

 (3) improved methods of shellfish culture, such as raft culture, rehabilita- 

 tion of bay bottoms, and modernized purification programs^ 



The major disadvantage foreseen is the adverse socio-economic 

 reaction to the cost of water quality improvement which directly relates to 

 habitat utilization,. The costs of other habitat improvement measures (arti- 

 ficial reefs and wetland programs) are expected to be met by present funding 

 legislation and should not be prohibitively expensiveo 



Establish uniform size and bag limitso Establishing uniform size 

 and bag limits for finfish and molluscan shellfish must be considered a condi- 

 tional recommendation dependent on research results regarding population lev- 

 els of the fish in the Soundo Presently, little is knoi;7n of the optimum 

 sustainable yield of any of the Sound's major sport or commercial fish populationso 

 Until research is able to determine the numbers, age of maturation, fecundity, 

 and the exploitation rate of the endemic finfish and shellfish populations in the 

 Sound (migratory species are not considered here) , data needed to establish uni- 

 form size and reasonable bag limits are unavailableo The most important bio- 

 logical fact that must be determined is the level of optimum sustainable yield 

 that the resources of the Sound can tolerate. Once this is known, and should 

 research efforts determine that the sustainable level of the resource is, in 

 fact, being reached, then this conditional recommendation should be implemented., Uni- 

 form bag limits must also include bag limits on total catch if fishery populations 

 are to be maintained in optimum condition » If harvest were not controlled 

 under these circumstances, then overfishing and eventual depletion of the fishery 

 stocks would most probably resulto Establishment of uniform size and bag limits 

 would assure protection for the fishery and at the same time, it would insure 

 fishing opportunities for present and future generationso 



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