For Release: December 9, 1998

Contact: Bob Ballou 222-4700 ext. 4420

Gary Powers 222-6607

HARTFORD, CT - On Monday, in U.S. District Court in Hartford, CT, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management appeared in opposition to a motion by the State of Connecticut to rescind the state-by-state quota system that governs the commercial harvest of summer flounder (fluke) along the U.S. East Coast. DEM's stance is aimed at upholding the State's interest in protecting its share of the coastwide summer flounder quota.

DEM Attorney Gary Powers represented the Department at the hearing. Powers was joined by Barbara Conklin, Assistant Attorney General for the State of New Jersey, Mark Brown, an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, and Joel McDonald, Regional Counsel for the National Marine Fisheries Service, all of whom testified in opposition to Connecticut's Motion for Summary Judgement.

Connecticut's motion, argued in court by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, seeks to eliminate the state-by-state allocation for summer flounder along the U.S. East Coast on the basis that it is inequitable. Under the program, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce sets annual total harvest limits for the entire coast and then allocates individual quotas to each state in accordance with each state's historical landings of summer flounder. During 1998, the total harvest limit was set at 11,110,000 pounds. For Connecticut, where vessels have historically landed just 2 percent of the total East Coast catch, the annual quota for 1998 was set at 250,457, or 2 percent of the total harvest limit. Rhode Island's share of the 1998 allocation was set at 15.68 percent, or 1,742,583 pounds, reflecting the higher annual landings of summer flounder that have been brought into Rhode Island ports over the years.

At Monday's hearing, Connecticut Attorney General Blumenthal maintained that the current system for managing summer flounder should be replaced by an open system, akin to a free-for-all, whereby the entire East Coast fishery would be open to harvest by vessels from any state on a first-come, first-serve basis and harvested until the total annual catch limit is reached. DEM and the other opponents argued that such a change would engender considerable instability within the fishery and thereby prove disastrous.

According to DEM Director Andy McLeod: "It is vital for Rhode Island to assist the federal government and the State of New Jersey in opposing the State of Connecticut's challenge to the state-by-state allocation regime. The current system enables DEM to keep the state's portion of the fishery open throughout the year via seasonal allocations and possession limits. Such stability is essential to the state's fishermen and fish dealers, who rely on constant supply to protect the state's share of the market. The benefits associated with Rhode Island's ability to manage its annual quota are evidenced by the fact that Rhode Island is one of just three states along the Eastern Seaboard where it is still legal to land summer flounder at this point in the year."

The Judge at Monday's hearing gave all sides one week to file any additional briefs. A decision on the matter is expected soon.