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Bluefin Closures

Read this in the Globe today: http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/34...luefins+.shtml

Quote:

ASHINGTON - Responding to concerns about overfishing, the federal government has shut down New England's bluefin tuna fishermen until May 31.

Massachusetts fishermen catch about 80 percent of the US bluefin tuna quota. The fish is often sold in Japan as ''Boston bluefin,'' where it is a staple of that nation's sushi menus.

The National Marine Fisheries Service determined that the annual Atlantic bluefin tuna quota of 919.7 metric tons was reached on Nov. 30. Under the fisheries service rule printed in the Federal Register last week, commercial fishermen must throw back any bluefin they catch.

''The reaching of the quota can change from year to year,'' said Brad McHale, a fishery management specialist with the service. ''For a number of years we were closing the season in early October, but in the last couple of years it has gone a little further. Last year it went through Dec. 31.''

Last week's declaration is the service's second closing of the year. The fisheries were originally shut down on Oct. 23, and the service determined that US commercial fishers had exceeded their quota by about 60 metric tons.

After reviewing other categories of fishers, including recreational charters, they learned the other fishers were below their quotas by 93 metric tons. The service reopened the fisheries on Nov. 12, before closing them last week.

Bruce C. Morehead, the acting director of the service's Office of Sustainable Fisheries, wrote in the order that charter boats can still fish for bluefin tuna under their separate regulations. Those regulations, in effect until May 31, limit each charter vessel to one bluefin tuna between 47 and 73 inches each day. In addition, charter boats can also keep one tuna larger than 73 inches each year.

The rule arises amid simmering international disagreement over the proper level for bluefin tuna quotas. In mid-November, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas ended its annual meeting without a final agreement on over-harvesting practices.

Currently, the United States, Canada, and Japan are allowed to land a combined 2,500 metric tons of bluefin tuna per year in the western Atlantic. The Europeans, meanwhile, have a quota of roughly 40,000 metric tons per year in the east. Recent scientific studies have indicated that the bluefins move across the eastern and western Atlantic regularly, and some US and Canadian fishermen think that they are being punished for European and North African overfishing.

This story ran on page A2 of the Boston Globe on 12/10/2001

Now after all I learned from "The Perfect Storm", isn't there still going to be a whole bunch of bycatch discarded when someone's out there working other fish?

Wow - 2500 tons in the western Atlantic and 40000 in the eastern? Wow...

Quotas and size limits appear to me, to be a big joke. On the surface, it would seem to help resolve the problem.

But its the methods that must evaluated.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but blue marlin and atlantic sailfish are protected from commercial harvest. Do longliners put a note on the hooks that say,"swordfish only please"? Marlin and sailfish and many other fish take those baits and alot of them die, either on the hook or after released... no doubt commercial fisherman release them carefully and spend alot of time reviving by-catch. Same goes for undersized fish, or fish caught in nets, or whatever.

If a certain portion of lip-hooked fish die from shock after a quick fight and a gentle release, how would they do after being on a longline hook for 24 hours, or after being dragged up in a net with several tons of other fish and debris, being dropped onto the deck, many crushed under the tonnage, then tossed overboard after how long out of water?

Tell me what good it does short fish to be thrown back into the water dead or badly injured? Quotas and size limits and even total protection certainly help to a point, but nets and longlines don't discriminate which species they catch.

Personally, I believe the quotas and size limits are used to show us that something is being done, when in actuality, they know its BS... if they have access to the info that says stocks are down, we need to do something, then they have access to the info that says the bycatch is still doing much, much damage.

Damn, I was thinking about getting a bigger rod/reel set up and taking one of those oversized BM plugs out to the banks for a few casts :). Just need to pack a few 6 gallon gas cans for extra crusing range.

The crappy part of the whole thing is , Recreationals were way under their quota when their season ended. So they let the commercials make up the difference. They reached their quota already and they should have been finished for the year period. This is a stupid plan they have in place.