This is a tough topic. In this particular case the fact that the fish were hidden and the captain told the officer (according to the report) no other fish were on board there seems to be deliberate deception. I believe last year or the year before there was a NY Head boat was arrested for having to many blackfish in CT waters. So it is happening. I think the non-reciprocity of laws affects the Comm and charter fleets alot more than the rec guys. Yeah we may be out there trying to fill our freezers but to the comm guys this is thier lively hood, they need to put thier fares onto fish.
Another question should laws be common for just
LIS? I mean now you run into another problem fishing on the south side of LI. Should Regs be the same for the southside as in
LIS? If not you are going to draw another one of these lines in the water, now a head boat fishing out of Montauk needs to live by to sets of regs depending on if he is fishing the southside or Northside.
Can you imagine the uproar if NY tried to lower their Tog creel limit to 4 fish from 10, or CT made Fluke 19.5 inches. I think having common laws is a great thing but we as fisherman (on both sides of the puddle)would really need to understand that it will be give and take. I mean it would be great to have one set of regs to follow instead of 2 or 3 or 4, much more cut and dry.
I will also say that there has been some movement towards this already. For Comm. Striped bass the state of CT has changed the law to allow a person holding a NY LISC to land fish in CT as long as they follow the NY laws for size etc. Which means a guy can show up on a CT dock with 20 striped bass and be leagal. This was only changed a couple of years ago.