We’ve all heard that false albacore taste like cat food and cook up to a putrid shade of greenish-gray, but if you survey an entire jetty of albie-chasers, you’ll be hard-pressed to find one that’s actually tried cooking them. At least, that used to be the case.
In more recent years, the popularity of chasing these green torpedoes has skyrocketed and there’s been a growing number of albies finding their way onto dinner tables across the Northeast. Along with that, there has been a growing number of concerned anglers counting the tails protruding from buckets as they walk off the jetty. An unregulated fishery is ripe for exploitation, and though some say this fish species that is prevalent throughout the world’s temperate oceans would be impossible to deplete…we’ve heard that before.
After North Carolina dipped a pinky toe in on regulating false albacore, imposing a 10 fish recreational bag limit and a 3,500-pound daily limit on commercial harvest, only after 200% of the 5-year average annual landings are caught, Massachusetts threw their hat into the ring and drew a definitive line in the sand. After a brief public comment period, that saw an overwhelming call for conservation, the State acted on March 27th. The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries voted to approve new combined false albacore and Atlantic bonito regulations.
The new rules set a new aggregate limit (comprised of false albacore and/or bonito) of five fish per angler per day with a minimum size of 16 inches, fork length. There has been no official word on when these regulations will take effect, but word on the street says that they may take effect in 2025, we will keep you posted.
