NOAA is at it again with more restrictions on fisherman. If you fish commercially for Bluefin Tuna on the Atlantic Coast, pay attention: NOAA is restricting days you can fish.
In an effort to clamp down on Recrational-Commercial fishing for Bluefin Tuna, NOAA has added 4 restricted fishing days that will remain in place from June to January. These are Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday....That should just about do it but why stop at 4 days? Might as well make it 7.
Yes, the US Bluefin Tuna market and fishery needs some improvements. Prices are shit, there are more folks fishing than ever before, and there are more fish around the Atlantic Coast than there ever had been in this century. Commercial fisherman who rely on fishing for their livelyhood have to compete with people who just want a cool Instagram picture and some free mudslides at Champlins.
But is this the way to do it?
With this new ruling, regardless of if you are a rec/com or strictly com, you can only fish for 42% of the days during a season. Toss the occasional weather system in there, and you realistically looking at 25% or less. How can any strictly commercial outfit survive on that?
We expect to see quotas slowly left unfilled. What will happen to the quota of it isnt constantly filled? Likely, it will be reduced, since unfilled quota means theres less fish right? This might cause the fishery as a whole will begin to wither down as more and more fisherman leave the fishery.
Could other controls be implemented that actually help commercial bluefin tuna fisherman? We‘d love to hear from you.