Last Thursday, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York gathered members of the the Long Island fishing community to meet with Dr. Jane Lubchenco, regional administrators for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA).

Schumer told the crowd gathered that the current summer flounder regulations in New York had “put the industry on death’s door,” and urged the NOAA Administrator to work to secure the best available science for the entire recreational industry.

“Nobody wants to see overfishing, but they want to see the science done in a rational way,” the senator said in his opening remarks. He went on to support the Mid-Atlantic Marine Fishery Council’s (Council) Science and Statistical Committee (SSC) and Monitoring Committee’s (MC) newly recommended acceptable biological catch recommendations of between 32 and 34 million pounds of fluke, which are being presented before the Council this week.

“We need more quota for 2011,” Schumer told Dr. Lubchenco, who pledged to do what she could to support the senator’s request. The SSC and MC also issued recommendations for increasing the allowable catch of porgy in 2011 from anywhere between 15 percent to nearly 200 percent.

Schumer joined Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) as a key sponsor of the Flexibility in Rebuilding in Fisheries Act, which calls for latitude in the strict rebuilding deadlines on fishing stocks imposed by the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

In Dr. Lubchenco’s opening remarks, she said her administration was “guided by scientific information — guided by the rule of law, Magnuson-Stevens.”

That comment must have struck Jim Hutchinson, managing director for the Recreational Fishing Alliance, as particularly troublesome, considering NOAA’s failure to adhere to certain provisions of Magnuson-Stevens.

According to the reauthorization of Magnuson-Stevens, the Marine Recreational Statistics Survey (MRFSS) was to have been replaced as a data gathering tool in 2009.

And yet it remains.

“By Dr. Lubchenco’s own account, we’re not going to see any improvement to our recreational harvest data for at least another year, which means NOAA Fisheries is in violation of federal law,” Hutchinson said.

The RFA believes there’s no reason not to allow for substantial increase in quotas in 2011 for summer flounder and scup.

“In light of what we just heard from NOAA’s chief regarding another season of missing angler data, getting maximum allowable catch is the fairest approach considering the noted lack of improved science,” Hutchinson said. “We’re bound by a fatally flawed system once again.”

More information on 2011 quotas for summer flounder and scup will be coming in Friday’s Hook, Line and Sinker.

For those anglers anxiously awaiting the arrival of warm-water species like false albacore and Spanish mackerel, Giglio’s Bait and Tackle in Sea Bright will help you get ready with a seminar on catching albies this Saturday.

All those interested are invited to meet at 7:30 a.m. in the Sea Bright Municipal Lot on Ocean Avenue. Once assembled, the group will move to the beach. The guest speaker will be veteran fisherman Chuck Kababick, of Long Branch.

Lou Marucci of the Knee Deep Fishing Club at Lake Hopatcong reported the winner of the club’s Catfish Derby was Jim Archambault, Hopatcong, with a 16-pound channel catfish that was worth $416 in prize money.

John Oswald