From the best of times to the worst in less than 365 days.
A year ago I penned an offshore column for our June 17, 2024 edition of The Fisherman entitled Good News on Bluefin Front as NOAA Fisheries granted a significant increase in recreational retention limits for bluefin tuna. Consider those the best of times in ‘24, when head boat operators with a highly migratory species (HMS) permit were able to retain 12 school bluefin (27 to less than 47 inches) and two large school/small medium bluefin (47 to less than 73 inches) for their passengers. For private vessels with an HMS permit, it was two school bluefin and one large school/small medium, while HMS permitted charter boats were allowed three school bluefin and one large school/small medium.
Apparently, these are the worst of times in ‘25, as NOAA Fisheries has dropped the recreational bluefin limits to just one school bluefin from 27 to less than 47 inches for private vessels, and two school bluefin for both charter and head boats. What exactly changed? Basically, too many bluefin, not enough quota. It’s the bitter irony of 21st century fisheries management, government hoping to build a sustainable population of fish stocks to accommodate increased participation, then distributing crumbs to keep as much of their pie intact as a dinner table showpiece.
Bottom line, there’s not enough bluefin quota assigned to the U.S. to keep pace with growth in the angling community. And until we can shake more tuna free out of global negotiations through the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), we’re dead in the water as school bluefin all size classes are blowing up along the midrange grounds.
I spoke with John DePersenaire, Director of Government Affairs and Sustainability at Viking Yachts just after the Memorial Day as this announcement from NOAA Fisheries was issued. He shared correspondence between he and the Acting Director at the NOAA Fisheries Office of Science and Technology, David Detlor, where DePersenaire pointed out a spike in landings in the Long Island, Connecticut and Rhode Island region in 2024 as per the agency’s Large Pelagic Survey (LPS) estimates, a surge that he said wasn’t necessarily corroborated through regional feedback.
“Most importantly, this situation underscores a broader reality: bluefin tuna abundance in U.S. waters is clearly increasing, and the U.S. must begin developing and executing a strategy to gain increased access and quote for U.S. fishermen,” DePersenaire noted. He went on to cite President Trump’s Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness Executive Order as providing a clear policy framework for increasing access to this fishery.
“It calls for ensuring access to healthy stocks and cautions against decisions based on outdated or inaccurate data. Bluefin tuna is a prime example of this,” said DePersenaire of the president’s order, noting how bluefin landed by either commercial or recreational anglers are consumed, either domestically or exported to other markets. “Our access remains disproportionately limited by the quota ICCAT affords the U.S.,” he added.
The Viking Marine Group, on behalf of the bluefin anglers along the Atlantic Coast, had officially asked NOAA Fisheries to decertify and review the LPS catch estimates from 2024. That request was denied, with Detlor adding “These retention limits are intended to provide a reasonable opportunity to harvest the available Angling category quota and subquotas, without exceeding them, while maintaining equitable fishing opportunities.”
The April 17th presidential order referenced by DePersenaire required the Secretary of Commerce to “consider suspending, revising, or rescinding regulations that overly burden America’s commercial fishing, aquaculture, and fish processing industries.” President Trump officially called on the Commerce Department to “identify the most heavily overregulated fisheries requiring action and take appropriate action to reduce the regulatory burden on them” within 30 days. Ironically, it took just 42 days for the Commerce Department to overly burden our angling community with an onerous regulation that NOAA Fisheries warns could get worse.
“If needed and appropriate, NOAA Fisheries could take another action(s) later in the year to increase or decrease the retention limits or close the fishery,” Detlor said in his response to Viking, adding “Although we have not closed the recreational fishery prior to the end of the fishing year in recent years (i.e., the fishery has remained open through December), the possibility of NOAA Fisheries needing to close the fishery earlier in the fishing year (e.g., in the summer or fall) is more likely this year.”
Yes, the bluefin news is bad right now. And because there are so many school bluefin in local waters, the gubment folks are now warning us that it’s “more likely” to get worse.
