Highly Migratory Species Report

The US giant bluefin tuna landing report for the season up to September 5, 2007 are so low they are shocking. The landings of Giants in the Northeast have dropped so far it must be described as a fishery collapse. NMFS reported only 64.7 MT of giant bluefin had been landed from the US quota of 1391.2 MT.

In the years before 2001 US fishermen had landed the entire US quota before October 1. NMFS, to stretch out the season, imposed a monthly quota system so that the entire US quota was not landed in the early months of the season. They did this partly because the fat content of early season migrating bluefin was low resulting in low dockside prices.

If this was not bad enough, I was given a copy of the Fishery Bullet magazine issue 105 and on pages 390 to 395 this report was absolutely shocking. The report is titled, “Decline in Condition of Northern Bluefin Tuna in the Gulf of Maine.” This report is based on the letter grading system used by fish dealers to describe the fat content of the tuna. The premium tuna are labeled A. Tuna with a lower fat content are labeled B or C.

This study found Bluefin tuna landed in the month of June, 2004 were in much poorer physical condition than fish landed in the early 1990’s. The probability of landing a poor quality tuna in June of 1991 was 30% of the landings. This percentage number had exploded to 70% of the landings by 2004. This is a 40% drop in tuna fat content.

In earlier years these Bluefin giants were almost all fat and happy by late in the summer. “In 1991 the probability of landing a bluefin in the C category during August was 16%. By September this percentage had dropped to 9%.” This new report found 68% of tuna landed were grade C or lower. This is a drop of 53% in 13 years!

Their September, 2004 report can be described as a disaster. Not only did the fat content not increase in landed bluefin but the fat content dropped to 76% of the bluefin tuna landed and all were now grade C or lower. This is a percentage drop of 67%!

Clearly, these giant bluefin could not find the abundant food sources they had fed on in previous years. Abundant forage is the only way they can build fat reserves for the long winter and their need for extra reserves to support their late spring spawning.

What happened? The huge increase in the commercial landings of Atlantic herring has been singled out as a likely cause of the decline in fat content of these tuna. This appears likely since these fisheries’ landings have increased to hundreds of thousand of tons a year.

In response, the New England Fishery Management council created a herring management plan that limited herring landings in the inshore areas where most giants have been caught in the past. The council also prohibited the landing of spawning herring. This species of herring is not identified as overfished. It appears that recent herring catches have come from near coastal waters where bluefin tuna have historically gone for food. Local fishermen have already reported increases in inshore herring abundance plus the birds and other large fish that feed on them.

There is a good article about herring in the November 2007 issue of National Fisherman which covers the impact of the new regulations.

In any event, something very bad has happened to the giant bluefin during their prime feeding season. It is not just the negative impact of low US bluefin prices but the future implications for their species survival. Scientist believe that low fat bluefin have a hard time surviving the winter plus low fat content affects their successful spawning.

After so many years of angler sacrifices in school bluefin tuna landings, this report suggests an absolutely terrible future for the recreational bluefin tuna fishery.

NMFS has stated that 2008 bluefin tuna rules will be the same as their 2007 regs.

Swordfish are the ONLY US HMS fishery where a stock recovery has occurred. For many years NMFS observers on longline boats in the Straits of Florida and the Charleston Bump have reported huge numbers of small swordfish being discarded dead by longline fishing gear.

To allow swordfish to rebuild their numbers, the entire east coast of Florida and The Charles Bump were closed to longline fishing. In just 5 short years since longlining was banned the swordfish stocks are near their plan’s objective and way ahead of the plan’s rebuilding schedule. Blue and white marlin have also been aided by their not being killed by domestic longliners as they make their annual journey from the east coast of Florida to New Jersey.

This recovery totally supports the concept that if fishery managers honestly regulate commercial fishing of any species, that species will recover quickly. This is a proven fact that politicians, fishery managers and councils nationwide have refused to accept. In fact, they have all done their very best to ignore this fact. They often relax the management rules for commercial fishers and have mostly disregarded their dead discards. This hugely increases the recovery time for any fish species.

Sadly, big success often brings other problems. Recent US commercial landings of swordfish have crashed. This appears to be a price issue due to low dockside prices caused by massive imports of cheap frozen swordfish from the Indian Ocean areas.

NMFS 2007 HMS rules required anglers to report their non-tournament swordfish and marlin landings by phone. NMFS phone swordfish reporting system was a total pain. NMFS has only 46 swordfish landings by anglers as of October 1. To correct this problem NMFS has created a web-based reporting system. (www.hmspermits.gov.) Remember, you need your permit number plus catch and gear specifics to make reporting complete. The phone number provided last spring is still working if you prefer to use a phone to make your report.

Please report your swordfish landings. Even if all anglers’ landings had been reported there is a huge quota available that can never be used this year. The problem is created by ICCAT. If the US does not land their quota, ICCAT could shift the unused US quota to other nations.

NMFS announced their comment period of LCS has been extended until November 1, 2007. Please send in your comment about the negative impact of NMFS proposed closure of recreational landings of black tip and sandbar sharks.

NMFS shark management proposal is a terrible waste of angler’s trust and cooperation! Missed by most is that NMFS has ended the recreational landing of many rarely caught sharks. Note that NMFS did not impose the same rules on the commercial fishery.

Here is a great opportunity for you to make a comment and save your fishery. Go on line and check the JCAA October newsletter HMS columns for ideas for your letter.

NMFS is slowly squeezing recreationals out of all HMS fisheries. Please respond! It’s your fishery you are writing to save.