About 100 Long Island fishermen and women packed a Hampton Bays dock Monday to support a man they say was charged wrongly with overfishing, as his lawyer criticized a "dysfunctional" state enforcement agency.
Standing beside the commercial fishing boat Providence, Southampton attorney Daniel Rodgers called on Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to disband the Department of Environmental Conservation's marine enforcement division and for DEC Commissioner Joe Martens to step down.
"The governor has failed us… Certainly, the DEC commissioner has failed," Rodgers said. "We're asking the governor to get off the bench, step up to the plate and show real leadership in the fishing industry."
Rodgers' comments followed a DEC enforcement action last week against Hampton Bays fisherman Bill Reed, who was charged with overfishing when he returned to New York with 700 pounds of fluke. Reed said he encountered bad weather during a Jan. 6 fluke fishing trip 50 miles from Long Island and made a decision to return home.
Though based in New York, Reed has a New Jersey fluke license, requiring that his catch be landed and processed in that state. But doing so would have required steaming 17 hours to New Jersey in high winds and icy conditions, he said.
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