NOAA 2019 Commercial and Recreational Landings Updates

NOAA Fisheries announced the final landings updates for Atlantic swordfish and tunas, including bluefin. This update includes all fish landed between January 1st and December 31st, 2019. It also released updates for recreational Atlantic billfish landings between January 31st and September 30th, 2019. Final numbers for recreational Atlantic billfish landings for the entirety of 2019 are still to come. All commercial species, including North Atlantic sworfish, bluefin tuna, yellowfin tuna, skipjack tuna, northern albacore, and bigeye tuna have experienced increased landings this year. Blue marlin, white marlin, and roundscale spearfish have also experienced increased landings (as of September 30th

NMFS Still Considering Gear and Quota Changes in Atlantic

Pelagic longline “research” decisions not yet issued that could authorize the gear to fish inside waters closed for 19 and 20 years off of Florida’s east coast, Charleston and in the Gulf of Mexico. The closures were implemented to reduce longline bycatch mortality of overfished swordfish, marlin, sailfish, tunas, sharks, sea turtles and marine mammals.  Swordfish stocks have recovered, but not the other species for which the waters were closed. If “longline research” inside the closed waters is authorized, it will be a clear indication the NMFS is writing- off the recovery of overfished billfish and the other species

Tropical Tuna Tagging Program Extended

The Billfish Foundation (TBF) is looking for anglers and crews interested in tagging tuna in the Northern Atlantic. TBF is working with scientists from the Atlantic Ocean Tropical Tuna Tagging Program (AOTTP) to learn more about certain tuna species. This program, which is part of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), looks to study key aspects of bigeye, skipjack, and yellowfin tuna life history and movements in the Atlantic Ocean. The AOTTP partners with scientists and commercial and recreational tuna fishermen to tag tropical tuna with AOTTP-specific conventional and/or electronic tags throughout the Atlantic

ICCAT Update – Reductions for Atlantic Marlin

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) is an international regional fishery management organization for highly migratory species (HMS) in the Atlantic, including billfish, tunas, and some sharks. Two additional, separate organizations for HMS operate in the Pacific Ocean and in the Indian Ocean. These three organizations were established by treaties among member nations, which meet each year to negotiate landing tonnage, as well as other management and conservation measures. They each also gather scientists each year to conduct stock assessments and make recommendations, based on science, to the managing Commission before which national delegations from

A Win for HMS Conservation in the Pacific? Not So Fast…

While no action was taken by the federal Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) at its November meeting to advance further consideration of its recently proposed measure to consider authorizing a Shallow Set Longline (SSLL) fishery for swordfish in waters off California November meeting. The PFMC did authorize its governmental Highly Migratory Species Management Team (HMSMT) to analyze effort, catch, bycatch data of subsets of Hawaii’s shallow-set longline observer data, document domestic and foreign supply of swordfish on the west coast and Hawaii and current conservation impacts on each, assess potential mitigation of such impacts that might reduce the

Atlantic Swordfish and Bluefin Landings Update

NOAA Fisheries announced landings updates for Atlantic swordfish and bluefin tuna. This update includes all fish landed between January 1st and October 31st of this year. For swordfish, a total of 835.2 metric tons dressed weight (mt dw) has been landed, totaling 28.4% of the 2,937.6 mt dw baseline quota for 2019. Of this, 791.2 mt dw has been caught intentionally by commercial fisheries, 7.4 mt dw has been reported as commercial bycatch, and 36.6 mt dw has been caught by recreational anglers. At this time in 2018, only 606.9 mt dw had been landed, resulting in a 228.3

Blue Marlin Satellite Tagging in the Gulf of Mexico

Because overfished Atlantic marlin receive no government research funding priority, large data gaps relating to their life history characteristics remain. Satellite tagging provides a means to fill some of the data gaps by recording a marlin’s location and movement in the water column, both horizontal and vertical. Each tag records variables in sunlight levels, water temperature and pressure that is converted to location and movement. Movement data then provides insight to such elements as whether oil rigs, which serve as large Fish Aggregation Devices (FADs), modify marlin movements and whether marlin remain in the region all year because

TBF Responds to New Pacific Fishery Management Council Initiative

The Pacific Fishery Management Counsel is proposing to authorize the use of shallow-set longline gear to fish for swordfish off the West Coast of the United States. Below are the official comments by President of The Billfish

NOAA Proposes Fishing Regulations in Gulf of Mexico

NOAA is considering an amendment to the current Fishery Management Plan for Coral and Coral Reef Resources in Gulf of Mexico. The amendment establishes new and modifies existing habitat areas of particular concern (HAPC), specifically coral habitats. An HAPC is a subset of essential fish habitat that is either ecologically important, sensitive to human degradation, currently stressed, or rare. Being essential fish habitat means that these coral reefs are essential to fish for spawning, breeding, feeding, or growth to maturity. With the potential passage of this amendment, NOAA hopes to protect these essential coral habitats against further degradation

Updated English and Spanish Atlantic HMS Compliance Guides

NOAA Fisheries has released updated compliance guides for recreational fishing of highly migratory species in the Atlantic Ocean. These guides include detailed anatomical figures, identification charts, and species-specific bag limits, landing information, and reporting requirements. The guides also include information on permitting, gear restrictions, sale restrictions, chartering, and tournaments. We recommend fishers keep copies of this guide on hand (either printed out or on their phones) when they’re out fishing. This way, you can ensure that you’re following all the necessary regulations to ensure that billfish and other highly migratory species are around for generations to come. A summary