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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 3
November 2005
Bluefin tuna industry pressing NMFS to OK winter fishery quota
HARWICH, MA - There’s no denying that the bluefin tuna season has been a bitter disappointment as of late October.
Sky-high fuel costs made it tough to justify going out “tuna-wishing.” The weather, at least this fall, was lousy and, while New England fishermen managed to catch only a few fish here and there, the Canadians racked up another fabulous season.
As of Oct. 21, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) reported that the general category had landed 101.8 metric tons (mt) out of its 908.3 mt quota, the harpoon category had landed 22.9 mt out its 90 mt quota, and the purse seiners had landed 178.2 mt out of their 530 mt quota.
So will boats pony up thousands of dollars for fuel to make the trip south to North Carolina to try their luck in the winter fishery?
Only if NMFS makes a firm statement of intent to allow fishermen to catch a reasonable number of fish, according to Rich Ruais, executive director of the East Coast Tuna Association (ECTA).
“It all depends on the agency making it clear that there will be serious volume available for the Carolina fishery,” he said. “Then you’ll see dealers talking with their boats about going down.”
Ruais also pointed out that NMFS has a “legal obligation” to give the industry a reasonable opportunity to catch its quotas. And he warned that failure to catch those quotas will result in demands from other countries – namely Canada – for a piece of the United State’s already slim share of the western Atlantic quota pie.
“If we don’t use this quota, we’re going to lose it,” he said. “This is a really serious problem.”
Seiners in the bay
Early in September, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) received numerous calls from people angered at the sight of all five purse seine vessels working in Cape Cod Bay.
According to DMF Director Paul Diodati, the complaints ranged from commercial fishermen concerned that the seiners could remove the last of the bluefin that annually return to the bay to several recreational tuna fishermen who found it hard to believe such large-scale operations were allowed.
An investigation by the Massachusetts Environmental Police found no evidence that the purse seiners violated any regulations.
Current state rules allow the seiners to come into the upper bay as of Sept. 1, except on weekends and holidays, and to have access to the entire bay as of Oct. 1.
According to DMF, seiners harvested about 70 fish from the bay in September. Most of the rest of their catches came from Georges Bank near the Hague Line.
Lorelei Stevens
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