Not to sure about your dads reasoning as to the laws and such in NY, but the same 14 inch limit is estabilished in many other states to fall in line with the federal size restriction mandated in § 648.103.... but I do know that anyone fishing in federal waters for any fishery(including fluke), has to report by law what they discard, or in charter instances what is C&R. Whether guys falsify this or not on the VTR(vessel trip report) is unknown to me. I am required to fill VTR reports for every charter, and every commercial trip I run. The Recreational side reports fish numbers retained and fish numbers released, the Commercial side reports in pounds what is caught and what is discarded....
The discarded fish do not get counted in the quota, which is what they can retain and sell on a daily, trip, or yearly total. They do however count the discards in the mortality data, and use these VTRs as they put it "for the conservation and management of marine fishery resources in accordance with the Magnuison-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act"
Scup, I agree with your sentiments that the recreational angler will still be out there fishing, and I think they will continue to patronize the charter boats that develop multispecies trips and adapt to comport themselves in a professional and responsible way to bring the enjoyment of fishing on a boat with those that cannot oir will not run one themselves(due to a myriad of reasons)
The EEZ zone exists 3 miles from closest shore point, so most commercial boats are fishing in these waters and thus follow federal regulations. This why I think the 14" size is used, not the old law arguement in NY that was used. Go ahead and run that by your dad, see what he thinks?
There are very few commercial boats I know of these days which fish or transit even, exclusively in state waters. The federal zones are regulated in the CFRs(code of federal regulations, sorry I didn't explain that sooner in this post) and are mandated under title 50. The
Sustainable Fisheries Division administers the federal fisheries management program for the Northeast Region under authority specified in the
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. While the NOAA Fisheries Service may independently enact management measures, most management measures are developed through a participatory process conducted by either the
New England Fishery Management Council or the
Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council. Council actions are reviewed by the Secretary of Commerce, and implemented if found consistent with all legal requirements. This holds true for all regulated species that are harvested in the EEZ coastwide....
Hope this sheds some light on the workings of the science and legalities at work. There is an awful lot of information to digest in the links provided.