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fwiw, on the west coast they have been using spinning rods for tuna for a long time. i know they catch fish over 200 lbs. on custom spinning rods. whether the rod is built as a jigger or spinning has little to do w/ how the rod will land a fish. it's more about the power of the rods being built on and more importantly, the drag power and capacity of the reels being used. they use shimano stellas from 14000 to 20000, penn 9500's, accurate, diawa's, etc., on the west coast. some of the new daiwa's have drags that are pushing 65lbs of pressure! that's pretty insane. i think van staal 250s-300s are being used around here as that is what more people have available for a reel w/ some capacity and that can handle the strain of a long run that these bft's give. price out one of those high end spinning reels and you're pushing close to or over a grand. most people are not going put out that kind of money for a reel and then have a rod built too. and, you'd be surprised how much pressure you can put on some of the custom rods the swe guys have now for this application.
additionally, the subject of tuna breakoffs and harming the fish, sure, it happens and i'm sure the outcome is not good for the fish. i'm willing to bet though that the people targeting this fishery may be a little better equipped on average than some of the people that show up and striped bass fish. i can probably estimate that on some of the more popular spots fished in south county/ri that many are undergunned to handle a 20# bass, nevermind one larger. how many of those fish get away? how about the anglers fishing rigs in the gulf and losing fish that go into the gear? it sucks, but i think there are many fisheries where this same argument could be brought up.
i feel the fishery will be on the esa in the not to distant future. corruption is deep in this industry for tuna. there is a lot of money at stake, so i'd be surprised if there was ever a moratorium on the fishery.
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