Fisheries

Vanishing bluefish bring to mind the compelling metaphor on a grand scale of the canary in the coal mine. Common sense dictates that we act far more decisively with restraint, care and rationality as fish in the wild face their unprecedented peril.

After an outcry from elected officials and commercial fishermen, the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has backed off the plan announced last month to abruptly close down the commercial bluefish fishery.

The House Committee on Natural Resources held a hearing in Riverhead to discuss the federal policies that currently regulate the region’s fishing grounds, arguing that they are based on “a lack of science” – and that those policies are threatening local economies across the East Coast.

New restrictions designed to reduce harvest of black sea bass in N.Y. waters have been proposed by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.