Angling Category Excedes Quota in 2010

[KP161]

Thought I'd get people fired up.

NMFS came out today with the numbers for 2010 bluefin catch and here are a few highlights:

Angling category exceded the large school/small medium (59-73") quota by 17 mt. Caught 139.3mt vs the quota of 122.5 mt. 2,242 fish of this size caught.

3,072 fish were caught in the general category (73" or bigger). 4,119 angling fish were caught (27-73").

General category caught 98% of the general quota.

2 things that struck me:

Purse seine didn't catch a fish. If they're not going to fish give the quota to the other groups. Atleast for the year. Couple hundred mt sitting on the table. Do people realize Lubchenco gave Mexico 50 mt of the U.S. quota from this year for no reason. An act of good will.

The U.S. accounts for dead discards. They accounted for 160mt of dead discards. 160mt!! Now when I saw this I figured longline crushed their quota and the observers witnessed all the discards. Nope. Longlineliners did not hit their quota. So where did the 160mt dead discards come from? Are they assuming every fish caught on light tackle with prolonged fight is going to die? Where are they coming up with this number?

[Heli Sports]

Thought I'd get people fired up.

NMFS came out today with the numbers for 2010 bluefin catch and here are a few highlights:

Angling category exceded the large school/small medium (59-73") quota by 17 mt. Caught 139.3mt vs the quota of 122.5 mt. 2,242 fish of this size caught.

3,072 fish were caught in the general category (73" or bigger). 4,119 angling fish were caught (27-73").

General category caught 98% of the general quota.

2 things that struck me:

Purse seine didn't catch a fish. If they're not going to fish give the quota to the other groups. Atleast for the year. Couple hundred mt sitting on the table. Do people realize Lubchenco gave Mexico 50 mt of the U.S. quota from this year for no reason. An act of good will.

The U.S. accounts for dead discards. They accounted for 160mt of dead discards. 160mt!! Now when I saw this I figured longline crushed their quota and the observers witenessed all the discards. Nope. Longlineliners did not hit their quota. So where did the 160mt dead discards come from? Are they assuming every fish caught on light tackle with prolonged fight is going to die? Where are they coming up with this number?

The longline category harvested 87% of their base quota. Dead discards are estimated, based on historic CPUE of the fishery. Although exceptions were made in 2009, longliners are generally allowed only 1-2 pieces of Bluefin per trip. The fact that the fleet did not realize the entire quota allocated, does not mean there were no discards.

The unused seiner quota may have been used to cover the recreational overages. The U.S. tries to set an example, intentionally coming in below quota annually.

[KP161]

The longline category harvested 87% of their base quota. Dead discards are estimated, based on historic CPUE of the fishery. Although exceptions were made in 2009, longliners are generally allowed only 1-2 pieces of Bluefin per trip. The fact that the fleet did not realize the entire quota allocated, does not mean there were no discards.

The unused seiner quota may have been used to cover the recreational overages. The U.S. tries to set an example, intentionally coming in below quota annually.

After seeing the longliner discards does the American swordfish longline fleet realize that they might get completely shut down from fishing if bluefin are listed as endangered?

An endangered listing is beyond ridiculous because you can walk on fish but let's say bluefin are listed. Do you think they'll allow 200 metric tons of dead discards of an endangered specie so that the longline fleet can continue to catch swordfish? I doubt it. They'll be shut down.

[Heli Sports]

After seeing the longliner discards does the American swordfish longline fleet realize that they might get completely shut down from fishing if bluefin are listed as endangered?

If ABT get an ESA listing (unlikely), EVERYONE will get shut down! Recs as well as longliners.

Do you think they'll allow 200 metric tons of dead discards of an endangered specie so that the longline fleet can continue to catch swordfish? I doubt it. They'll be shut down.

You're joking, right?

Do you think is a new thing? These longline discards date back to the early 1980's. The longline fleet is actually allowed to retain more Bluefin now.

And wise up! Who do think was actually catching many of the Bluefin landed in Hatteras an OI this winter?

It used to be much worse. The U.S. longline fleet actually used to target Bluefin in the Gulf of Mexico ..


During the heyday of the East Coast pelagic longline fishery during the 1980's, the Gulf of Mexico was a black hole for Atlantic Bluefin Tuna. During this period, Bluefin prices were astromical in Japan. A large percentage the entire longline fleet from New England, New York/New Jersey, the Carolinas and Florida converged on Venice, Louisiana and other gulf ports from Panama City, Florida to Galveston, Texas in mid-January every year to fish for pre-spawning giant ABT.

Although regulations at the time specified that ABT were supposed to be a bycatch of legitimate GOM fishing for Yellowfin and Swordfish, because the value of these tunas was so high during the bubble years of the Japanese economy, this was in fact a directed fishery. The areas holding the Bluefins were often quite distant from the productive Yellowfin and Sword grounds. Typically these vessels landed only a few hundred pounds per trip of Yellowfin, Bigeye, Swordfish, Mahi, Wahoo, etc. in addition to Bluefin.

These pre-spawn GOM giants were extremely high in quality! The fat/oil content of these tunas was consistantly excellent. Because longline harvested tunas are generally superior in meat color/quality to other methods of capture, and during the winter months at that time there was very little fatty tuna being produced elsewhere in the world, these tunas were highly esteemed in Japan. During the boom years of this fishery, the average prices in Tokyo for prime winter GOM Bluefin averaged Y6000-8000 Japanese Yen per kilo. High prices were Y10,000-15,000 daily and not infrequently eclipsed Y20,000 per kilo!

Because the GOM Bluefin fishing grounds were often 350+ miles from port, high-grading and culling were rampant. Vessels were allowed only two Bluefins per trip, however the general proceedure by this fleet was to take four or more giants, offloading two pieces, then leaving port and returning the following day to discharge the additional two pieces. Sharp skippers learned to chill down multiple fish during the steam back from the fishing grounds, then select and retain the best quality fish, and pass off extra pieces to a large fleet of "scavenger" fibreglass vessels too small to fish the distant grounds in the rough winter sea conditions. Fishing for Bluefin was excellent during this time. A typical set might produce 35 or more giants, with some unscrupulous skippers killing and grading dozens of individuals before selecting the best quality/sized specimens.

In the early nineties, NMFS wised up and started cracking down on this out of control fishery and its violators. In order to force the fleet to cease directed efforts on Bluefin, vessels were then required to land at least 2500 pounds of other marketable species in order to lawfully land Bluefins. Catching enough Yellowfin, Sword, etc. to land Bluefins became problematic for a large part of this fleet and this fishery went into decline as a result. Most of the east coast vessels stopped wintering in the GOM and resumed fishing off the Carolinas or Puerto Rico, Trinidad, etc.

Around this same time, a fleet of longliners operated by Vietnamese immigrants rapidy grew in the Louisiana/East Texas area. By using live bait, this fleet enjoyed extraordinary success catching Yellowfin in very large numbers. For several years this fleet continued to grow and enterprising Vietnamese fishermen harvested a great deal of Yellowfin. Athough they caught comparatively fewer Bluefins, because they used live goggle eyed scad for bait they caught tremendous numbers of billfish. Eventually, NMFS prohibited the use of live bait by longliners, and this fishery too went into decline.

Today, just as on the east coast and New Engand, the longline effort in the GOM has been tremendously reduced. Compared to the past, the number of longline vessels fishing in the GOM (and off the east coast for that matter) is a small fraction of what it once was. During the 80's there were over 200 longline vessels fishing Bluefin in the GOM during the winter months. In 2009, only 75 longline vessels landed Bluefins from both the GOM and off the east coast. In 2009, only about 200 individual Bluefin Tuna were landed by the longline fleet in the southern region and only about 160 pieces in 2008. A significant number of these fish are likely harvested off of North Carolina.

Commercial Yellowfin production in the GOM remains comparatively poor now. I believe that the longline effort currently in the Gulf of Mexico has been significantly reduced so discards are likely fewer as well. I doubt much culling takes place there today due to observer coverage of most sets in the GOM.

Closed areas to longlining in the NE canyons during periods of high interaction have likely reduced actuall dead discards by the fleet, as well as relaxed bycatch requirements.

[ironskippy]

Since the Seiners do not have access to Cape Cod Bay anymore, they are in a pinch for easy places to wrap fish. I think a couple of boats tried Georges but were obviously unsuccessful.

jb

[KP161]

Closed areas to longlining in the NE canyons during periods of high interaction have likely reduced actuall dead discards by the fleet, as well as relaxed bycatch requirements.

On this note if bluefin are listed as endangered it would also give the tree huggers a license to shut down all canyon fishing due to interaction between the troll boats and bluefin. Bluefin are caught all the time in the canyons. They could come out and say you can't troll for yellowfin, marlin etc. because you might catch bluefin.

[bampy]

The total number of individuals landed in 2010 is down by almost 5000 fish, mostly attributed to the angling category effort control put in place during the 2010 fishing season (4119 fish in 2010 and 10334 fish in 2009 )

Has to be good for rebuilding. But, smaller quotas with less carry over is going to change our fishery soon. If ESA doesn't get us first. Ralph