Officers logged over 1,000 patrol-hours preventing the illegal harvest and sale of glass eels. Horseshoe crab regulations in 1998 eliminated all harvest methods except by hand. Conservation officers spent considerable time enforcing the harvest regulations that included closed harvest areas, harvesting without permits, harvesting at times other than permitted and harvesting in areas other than by hand. Striped bass, a major resource management success story, has kept field officers extremely busy with a tremendous increase in the number of anglers fishing for them. This activity is taking place in all marine waters and complaints of violations have increased.
Marine officers continue to be very active in the enforcement of commercial finfish regulations.
Trip limits, seasonal quotas, mesh sizes, days at sea and directed and non-directed fisheries all have a tremendous effect on the success of the various fisheries management plans. As regulations have gotten more complex, so has the detection of violations. One example of this is a case which involved officers from New Jersey, New York State DEC and National Marine Fisheries Service Special Agents. In addition to open area clamming, officers spend considerable patrol time in condemned water areas where the direct harvest of shellfish is strictly prohibited to ensure public health. These programs allow shellfish to be harvested from restricted waters and processed.