International Tag and Release Competition Update
TAGGING CAPTAIN: RELEASE CAPTAIN: TAGGING ANGLER: RELEASE ANGLER: TAGGING LADY ANGLER: RELEASE LADY ANGLER: TAGGING YOUTH ANGLER: RELEASE YOUTH ANGLER: Blue Marlin Tagging Captain: Sailfish Tagging Captain: Swordfish Tagging Captain: White Marlin Tagging Captain: Blue Marlin Tagging Angler: Sailfish Tagging Angler: Swordfish Tagging Angler: White Marlin Tagging Angler: Blue Marlin Release Captain: Sailfish Release Captain: Swordfish Release Captain: White Marlin Release Captain: Blue Marlin Release Angler: Sailfish Release Angler: Swordfish Release Angler: White Marlin Release Angler: Black Marlin Tagging Captain: Blue Marlin Tagging Captain: Sailfish Tagging Captain: Striped Marlin Tagging Captain: Black Marlin Tagging Angler: Blue Marlin
Now Accepting Submissions for the 2020 TBF Artist of the Year
Attention all creatives! The Billfish Foundation is now accepting submissions for the 2020 Artist of the Year! Every year, TBF chooses one artist to highlight all year long. As the TBF Artist of the Year, your art will be featured on the cover on Billfish Magazine with a profile and write up inside, a print of yours will be given to future TBF members, and your work will be promoted amply on social media and during our events. Past winners include art powerhouses like Gash Clayton, Carey Chen, Dustin Cole, and more! To apply, just send us your information
TBF Tells NMFS NO To Harming Billfish and Sportfishing
As promised, below are TBF’s final comments for the NMFS initiative that will potentially decimate billfish populations and harm the recreational fishing community. As a reminder, the new NMFS proposal is twofold: To read more about the proposal, click here. Most importantly, to add your comments telling NMFS NO to loosening gear restrictions and harming our community, click here. Comments are due by midnight tonight, September 30th
New NMFS Initiatives Benefit Longlines and Harm Recreational Community
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is proposing initiatives that once again ignore the recreational fishing community and do not benefit billfish conservation. NMFS seeks to reinvigorate commercial catch by loosening regulations on the longline fishery. This comes despite the fact that NMFS scientists and scientists of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) have made it clear that fishing pressure must be reduced on overfished marlin and other species – or to use a precautionary fishing approach. These new adjustments are irresponsible and show a true lack of regard for our community, the economic capacity
New Gear Restrictions May Help Billfish in the Pacific
The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission recently announced new requirements for fisheries targeting tuna in the Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO). These new regulations intend to reduce sea turtle bycatch but have the potential to help billfish as well. While much of the resolution focuses on sea turtle-specific protections, two major factors may also benefit billfish. These include the increasing observer coverage on commercial fishing boats and the use of circle hooks. The first way this resolution may help conserve billfish is the intent to bolster observer coverage onboard commercial vessels. Observers are independent beings (not tied to the fishing boat)
New Blue Marlin Study Illuminates Age-Length Relationship
A new TBF-supported study out of the University of Miami made great strides in understanding the relationship between age and growth of Atlantic blue marlin. The study examined growth annuli in anal fin spines of 1,638 blue marlin caught as bycatch in Venezuela to determine the age of each fish. Growth annuli are small rings inside of the fin spine that increase in number as the fish ages, much like the rings in a tree trunk. They then correlated this age information to the lower jaw fork length (LJFL) to determine how well LJFL predicts fish age. The study found
New Quota Adjustments for Swordfish, Albacore Tuna, and Bluefin Tuna
NOAA Fisheries announced new 2019 baseline quotas for North Atlantic albacore tuna, North and South Atlantic swordfish, and Atlantic bluefin tuna (reserve category). These updates come as a result of underharvest of these species in 2018, moving the underutilized quota for 2018 to be available for 2019 use. The new quotas are as follows: Key: mt = metric tons, ww = whole weight, dw = dressed weight Note: The South Atlantic swordfish transfer is handled differently from the rest. No U.S. fishermen caught any South Atlantic swordfish in 2018, so the entire 75.1 mt dw was transferred to the
Potential Changes to the NOAA HMS Fishery Management Plans
Earlier last week, NOAA Fisheries announced that they are considering changes to the 2006 Consolidated HMS Fishery Management Plan and we will be monitoring and reviewing this further and providing comments soon. There are currently five major changes being considered. Public comment on these potential changes is open until November 11th, 2019. The scoping meeting is open to the public online, information for attending can be found here. For more information and to stay up-to-date on current fishery management, subscribe to the TBF newsletter, or follow us on social media
2019 Atlantic Billfish and Swordfish Landings Updates
As of August 20th, NOAA Fisheries finished compiling the second quarter updates for reported billfish (marlin, sailfish, and spearfish) and swordfish landings in the Atlantic. These landings include all billfish and swordfish landed from January 1st, 2019 through June 30th, 2019. With the tournament season well under way, a total of 39 blue marlin, 7 white marlin, and no roundscale spearfish have been landed. This is fairly on par with the 2018 second quarter landings, which boasted 37 blue marlin, 5 white marlin, and no roundscale spearfish. As such, there are 204 landings allowed for the remainder
Atlantic Bluefin Tuna General Category Closure
Just two days after the Harpoon category closure, NOAA Fisheries Highly Migratory Species Department has announced the closure of the General category for Atlantic bluefin tuna. As of 11:30pm on August 9th, 2019, fishermen aboard vessels permitted in the Atlantic tunas General and Atlantic HMS Charter/Headboat categories may not retain, possess, or land medium (135 – <235lbs), large (235 – <310 lbs), or giant (>350 lbs) Atlantic bluefin tuna. Unlike the Harpoon category closure, this closure will only last until September 1, 2019. The 277.9 mt subquota of Atlantic bluefin tuna that has been allocated for June through
