Let the Fish Choose

A Story about Who from What Town Can Fish in Southampton

By Dan Rattiner

There’s a rift at Moriches Bay

The next time a fish is caught in Moriches Bay on the Southampton side of the Town line, it should ask the fisherman who caught it whether he is a resident of that town. The Town line separates Brookhaven from Southampton. Brookhaven baymen and fishermen who go over that line and pull up something are obliged to throw it back. It's against the law for them to catch them. This is a great advantage to a fish.

The ban is the result of something the King of England ruled in 1688. He told Governor Dongan of New York that in each town a group called the trustees should be entrusted to take care of the waterways, make laws and enforce them, and see to it that the bay bottoms, shorelines and wetlands are kept for the residents of each of those towns exclusively.

Over the course of time, the Declaration of Independence was signed, the Revolution was fought, and the King was driven away. Many towns, including Brookhaven, dismantled the old trustee system. (In Huntington, the trustees walked out of their offices, took off their trustee hats, put on their town board hats, and walked back in. There was now a new flag in the conference room.)

In three eastern towns, however, the trustees remained and today work together with the Town Board on upholding the King's Decree. These towns are Southold, Southampton and East Hampton.

It has turned out that the Brookhaven fishermen do not like not being able to fish in the bay on the Southampton side of Moriches Bay because of some invisible line. And so they have filed a lawsuit against Southampton.

They say that their State fishing license, which they got up in Albany, gives them the right to fish anywhere along the shores of New York State. And they say that these old laws, made when the King was in charge, are no good today. The King is gone.

The Southampton Trustees say that the state fishing license gives the Brookhaven fishermen the right to fish the WATERS of Southampton. What it does not let them do is fish for clams, lobsters and or migratory fish by dropping or affixing their traps to the bay bottom. The bay bottom of Moriches Bay, on the Southampton side, is property administered by the Southampton Trustees. And the practice of affixing or dropping certain things to the bottom is reserved for the residents of that Town.

Over the years there have been frequent challenges to the rights given to the Town Trustees. But as you might imagine, any law that has withstood challenges for 320 years is very likely in good standing. The Trustees have never lost.

As for the claim that whatever the King decided 300 years ago is moot and beside the point, some in Southampton have said that if Brookhaven believes that, they ought to go to London and take that up with Queen Elizabeth. If she wants to revoke these laws, she can do so. All she has to do is find the old law, which is known as the Dongan Patent, and write a letter declaring it revoked.

They also argue that there is plenty of Moriches Bay and other bays in Brookhaven that the local residents can use. Unfortunately, because Brookhaven rode its trustees out on a rail, there is nothing to prevent the Southampton fishermen from fishing in Brookhaven.

Up in northeastern Connecticut, there is a lake with the longest name in the world. It isake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagogg-chaubunagungamaugg, which, in the Algonquin Indian Language, means You Fish on Your Side and I Fish on My Side and We Both Fish in the Middle.

Too bad about that.

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