PROVIDENCE - The Department of Environmental Management has announced that the state's commercial scup fishery will open on May 1. The inshore scup fishery, which runs for six months through October 31, is based on a coast-wide quota determined by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. The total allocation for Rhode Island in the year 2000 is 731,835 pounds, up from last year's allotment of 597,821 pounds.

Rhode Island divides its quota allocation between the floating fish trap fishery and all other gear types. This year's quota for the floating fish trap fishery is 439,100 pounds; 10,000 of those pounds will be set aside for harvest during June, July and August, when the trip limit per vessel harvesting from floating traps will be 500 pounds. In May, catch is unlimited until 60 percent of the quota is reached; it will then be limited to 10,000 pounds.

For all other commercial gear types, the season quota is 292,734 pounds, allocated into the following three sub-periods of 97,578 pounds each:

• During May and June there will be a possession limit of 1,000 pounds, which will drop to 100 pounds when 80 percent of the sub-period quota is reached.
• From July 1 to September 15, the possession limit per vessel will be 100 pounds.
• On September 16, the possession limit will rise to 1000 pounds until 50 percent of the sub-period allocation is reached, when it will drop to 500 pounds. Once 80 percent of the sub-period allocation is reached, the per vessel possession limit will again be reduced, to 100 pounds, until October 31 or until the quota is filled.

Because of the potentially high daily catch rates of the fish traps, all dealers are required to report scup landings daily to DEM's Division of Fish and Wildlife on the established call-in system at 1-800-839-1346. Based on catch, adjustments to the daily limits will be made if necessary, and updated information will be available to fishermen at dealers.