DAN'S PAPERS, July 2, 2010 Page 112 www.danshamptons.com (continued from page 92)
a familiar sight appears. Two pickup trucks come over the dunes. One of them tows a trailers and a 20-foot dory. The haul seiners. In a matter of minutes, the dory is launched through the surf, the net is played out behind, and the entire school of fish is enclosed in the great arc of the haul seiners’ net. The surfcasters shout and yell, but they can do nothing about it. There are two of them, and there are five of the haul seiners. A shoving match begins, grown men, pushing each other up and down the sand, but in the end the surfcasters retreat, angry at the haul seiners, angry at themselves, and angry at their helplessness in facing up to the haul seiners.
Quietly, in the early light of day, this drama has been repeated again and again, without anything being done to stop it. But then, a few years ago, the sportsfishermen began to add up the numbers. There were perhaps 240,000 sportfishermen in the state. There were no more than 40 haul seiners. They would take their case to the state capitol and, if they could do it, they would drive the haul seiners right off the beach. The bill brought before the lesislature in Albany was very ingenious. It declared that striped bass were too valuable to be considered fair fame for the commercial fishermen. “Save Our Stripers” became the battle cry. In fact, it
One of the most absurd things that happened during the war between the surfcasters and the haul seiners was the so-called “Montauk Boycott.” Blair Mosher, who headed “Save Our Stripers,” decided in the spring of 1972 that the way to get the striper bill onto the floor of the State Legislature was to starve residents of Montauk. His reasoning went like this: The man holding up the bluefish bill in the State Assembly was Perry Duryea. Perry Duryea was from Montauk, and Montauk was the traditional home of the commercial fishermen. Thus, by declaring an economic boycott of the village of Montauk, the local peasants would begin to starve and eventually beat down Duryea’s door so that the striper bill would get to the floor of the assembly. Mosher actually made a declaration to the press, that spring of 1972, that following his instructions, no tourists or fishermen would set foot in Montauk that summer. Montauk like Cuba, would starve. And many Montauk residents actually were disturbed by this sort of talk. Would Mosher blockade the coast? Fortunately the tourists came. And this year, with Duryea no longer the majority leader, the bill came to the floor of the assembly precipitating the current crisis. became the name of the group lobbying for the surfcasters in Albany. “Save Our Stripers” from the ravages of the haul seiners. Pass a law declaring striped bass to be an endangered (continued on page 114)
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