NOAA Fisheries is adjusting the Atlantic bluefin tuna daily retention limits for both the General category and Harpoon category fisheries.
What are the retention limits?
General category:
One large medium or giant bluefin tuna (i.e., measuring 47 inches or greater curved fork length) per vessel per day/trip.
Effective June 1 through June 30, 2025 unless modified by a later action.
Harpoon category:
Five large medium and giant bluefin tuna (i.e., measuring 73 inches or greater curved fork length), combined, per vessel per day/trip; no more than two of the five can be large medium bluefin tuna (i.e., measuring 73 inches to less than 81 inches curved fork length).
Effective June 1 through November 15, 2025 unless modified by a later action.
Who is affected?
These changes apply to either: General category permitted vessels and Highly Migratory Species Charter/Headboat permitted vessels with a commercial sale endorsement when fishing commercially for bluefin tuna (General category limits); or exclusively to commercial vessels with an Atlantic Tunas Harpoon category permit (Harpoon category limits).
What about recreational anglers?
Vessels fishing recreationally for Atlantic Highly Migratory Species are not affected by the above changes but will see some changes of their own. The basics are the same; recreational vessels must have a valid HMS Angling permit to fish for Atlantic bluefin tuna. The permit covers everyone fishing on that vessel. Tournament vessels may instead fish for bluefin with an Atlantic Tunas General category permit.
Rec anglers across the Northeast are bound by the following regulations in 2025; all bluefin measuring less than 27 inches must be released. There is a one fish per vessel, per day limit for bluefin measuring 27 to less than 47 inches.
A 1 Fish Limit?
Recreational fishermen may be left wondering what happened to the three-fish daily limit for bluefin measuring between 27 and less than 73 inches they enjoyed in 2024. As it turns out, NOAA surveys estimated that recreational anglers overharvested bluefin tuna in this category by more than 50% in 2024, prompting corrective measures in 2025.
Many recreational anglers and for-hire captains cringe when they hear the word ‘estimated’ in a sentence pertaining to fishing regulations, and this is why it’s so important that rec anglers and captains report their tuna catches. These catch reports provide real data that can make a meaningful difference when it comes time for NOAA to make the following year’s tuna regulations and they make managers’ catch estimations more accurate.
So please, make sure to report your bluefin catches in 2025 so we might see more relaxed regs in 2026.
