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Q&A HOME • BRAD CHASE • MOLLY LUTCAVAGE
• STEVE WEINER • BARBARA BLOCK • BILL HOGARTH
Brad Chase
Brad Chase is a marine fisheries biologist for the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. Currently, he is responsible for tracking American eel, rainbow smelt, and bluefin tuna and coordinating anadromous fish habitat restoration.
He has interacted professionally with bluefin tuna fisheries in New England since 1983 and was formerly active in bluefin tuna cooperative research and management, including serving 12 years on the US ICCAT Advisory Committee.
Q: How would you characterize the changes in the New England bluefin fishery over the last few years?
A: The last two years have been the worst on record for the contemporary Gulf of Maine hand-gear fishery. And catch and effort had been declining for several years before that.
During the history of fishing for bluefin tuna in the western Atlantic, there have been hot spots that flare up and provide excellent catch rates for a number of years and then fade from memory.
However, the one consistent region has been the Gulf of Maine, which has been the center of the bluefin’s summer foraging migration. It is unprecedented to have such limited aggregations of giant tuna in the Gulf of Maine during the last two seasons.
Another change is potentially positive. We are seeing more consistency to the occurrence of school tuna in the Gulf of Maine. For many years, it was thought that age-4 and younger bluefin did not commonly migrate north of Cape Cod.
The last few years have brought increasing observations and angling catches of age-2 to age-4 bluefin from Cape Cod Bay to Maine. These sizes were part of a more balanced size composition of bluefin tuna found in the region during the 1940s and 1950s.
Q: To what do you attribute these changes?
A: First of all, there is so much we don’t know about these fish that we have no choice but to speculate. However, a few themes do stand out and should be on everyone’s list.
The availability of bluefin tuna in the Gulf of Maine may be most influenced by stock dynamics throughout the Atlantic Ocean. The present scenario is not very favorable.
The harvest levels in the eastern Atlantic have been way too high. The last 10-15 years have seen an increase in longline activity in the Atlantic by nations not willing to abide by ICCAT regulations. This illegal activity is probably starting to hit home, as each blush of a decent year class eventually gets hammered on the high seas.
Second, on a more regional basis and not as important as Atlantic-wide stock dynamics, is the forage issue in the Gulf of Maine.
Giant bluefin are not aggregating for long periods at traditional areas where Atlantic herring were the dominant forage. We saw their availability diminish south of Cape Cod when small-mesh trawler fisheries depleted the small pelagic and demersal hake forage in the 1980s. This dynamic may be occurring in the Gulf of Maine in response to the advent of the pair trawl fishery for Atlantic herring.
The timing of this herring fishery does coincide well with the sharp drop-off of hand-gear bait fisheries at traditional regions in the Gulf of Maine. This topic may not be influencing stock composition, but is probably a factor in giant tuna availability in the Gulf of Maine.
The return of school bluefin tuna may be influenced by changing fisheries practices in the western Atlantic. The purse seine fishery heavily targeted school bluefin in the 1960s and 1970s. In those years and the 1980s, small tuna abundance declined in waters off New England. However, the improving balance of bluefin tuna size composition in the Gulf of Maine could well be influenced by stock dynamics outside of this region and climatic and oceanographic factors.
Q: What is the single most important management strategy that the US should pursue domestically?
A: Domestic management will not be nearly as important as international. We have a small quota that we can’t fill right now. Domestic changes won’t have a significant influence on Atlantic-wide stock dynamics. Reduction of mortality at identified spawning habitats and conservation practices that can be exported to other nations may contribute to US long-term interests.
Q: What is the single most important management strategy that the US should pursue at ICCAT?
A: Catches in the Mediterranean Sea, eastern Atlantic, and central Atlantic must be reduced. Unreported and under-reported catches in these regions have been out of control for over a decade.
We have to convince these nations that it is in their best interests to scale back dramatically. A 10% cut won’t help.
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