2009 Bluefin landings summary

[twofinbluna]

FYI- the 2009 numbers came out today. They can be found at the link below. In a rush so no time to comment on this now.

2009 landings

[backman]

shame on all of us.

Myself and 4 others reported trophy fish caught last year.

2 years ago when i reported one I was one of 6 or 7.

For all the chest thumping I saw here and elsewhere on 2-3 local boards dozens if not hundreds of 73-81" fish were caught in Mass alone.

[tunatamer73]

When I saw that stat I said to my girl "no way is that correct." 5 fish ya right. Were the rest transfered to a general boat and sold?

And this data includes the NC fishery!

Makes you wonder how many <73" fish were not reported.

[Block and Tackle]

Over a million pounds of sub 73" bluefin we caught. Just disgraceful. Congrats NMFS you have managed to screw up another part of a fishery.

[amarshall]

this is going to get interesting

[sashamy]

I told you so.....now I can say it....

[backman]

Data and fact is hard to argue.

FWIW - charter falls into angling category as long as they don't get a giant, right?

[KP161]

Data and fact is hard to argue.

FWIW - charter falls into angling category as long as they don't get a giant, right?

Yes, charter is included in the angling. Atleast all sub 73" fish that are not sold. Any charter sold fish go against general.

Been saying for quite some time someone needed to put the breaks on. Another million + lbs or more of sub 73" fish will be caught in 2010 if they don't come up with a decent solution.

[backman]

lets have some more fun. I do this for a living


WE have 10,000 fish in the angling category. That's a fact.

We have 1 crack charter captain stating he put 50 fish on the board last season. That's a fact.

Lets assume he's representative of the typical charter captain. 50 fish per charter boat per year.

Lets count 11 ports in Mass. 2 in NH, 2 in Maine each with 5 charter boats per port. Ports include the popular ramp's for the trailer crew. 15 ports.

Lets assume 5 charter boats per port. 75 charter captains from Portland to Falmouth.

Each catch 50 fish per season.

There's 3750 of your 10,000 angling fish right there.

---------------------------------
and to share the wealth. Lets take those 15 ports and quadruple the count to reflect private harbors and ramps. That's 60 ports. Lets model 10 private boats per port fishing for tuna or 600 boats.

Lets assume each boat makes 1 trip/week for a 20 week season. 600 boats/20 trips per boat - 12,000 trips.

Throw in a 50% success rate and there's the other 6,000 of your angling fish.

Tragedy of the commons anyone? Little Malthus for dinner tomorrow?

BTW - I am happy to eat my own dogfood and limit my keep per boat or as has happened in years past, release all fish during a closed window in late summer.

[KP161]

How are we supposed to put heat on the mediteranean fishery if there is an unsustainable juvenile fishery being conducted in our own waters. It is pretty clear that self reporting does not work for the recreational sector. I am not against the rec sector but they have to face the music and understand that when a quota is met it means no more fishing. Commercial fisherman have been dealing with quotas for years and are used to being shut down now the recs must as well

Unsustainable or uncontrolable juvenile fishery?

To me the reporting worked just fine (well maybe not just fine)...the problem was that NMFS did not close the sub 73" fishery when 200mt or whatever the quota was got hit. What is so tough about when a number is hit you close it?

Like you said the commercial fisherman deal with hit quotas and closed fisheries all the time.

Now is the system they have in place to count the sub 73" catch any good? No, not really. But just go with something, figure it out and when the quota is hit it's over.

Did those numbers really say on the mediiums (47-73") the quota last year was roughly 90mt (adj to 151mt)? That's the month of June and closed. The NC and VA guys have already been hitting those fish hard in 2010 so the 47-73" quota has got to be 20mt so far. 70mt to go and that sector should be closed.