Fisheries Management and Aquatic Education in the Long Island/New York City Area: Lessons Learned Over the Past 30 Years

New York's involvement in urban fisheries can be traced back to 1978 when a two-year demonstration project was initiated in New York City and other urban areas in the state. Unfortunately, the program failed to consider the inherent differences between metropolitan New York and the Midwest in terms of what the public expectations were of such a program. While the St. Louis program was achieving use rates of over 10,000 h/acre, the New York program was only achieving use rates of 49-2,176 h/acre annually, resulting in its demise in 1980. In 1992, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation began a new community fishing initiative in Nassau County (Long Island). This initiative used traditional and innovative strategies to encourage local governments to work to improve the County's freshwater resources, encourage individuals to try the sport of fishing, better manage existing fish populations, and enhance existing fishing opportunities through a fall trout stocking program. These efforts contributed to an 85% to 162% increase in angler use of individual ponds and a 111% increase in the number of angler-days expended in Nassau County.