Amendment 13 Finalized

As of October 3, 2022, Amendment 13 for Bluefin Tuna is now complete and includes changes for commercial fishing under the Individual Bluefin Quota system. Fortunately, there were fewer impacts on the recreational fishing community. One notable change is related to the division of the North Angling Area into two areas, thus requiring the total angling quota to now be divided among four areas instead of three. Regarding quota transfers, NMFS is transferring 125 metric tons of Atlantic bluefin tuna quota from the Reserve to the General category for October and November 2022. The new sub-quota is 177.9 metric

Amendment 13 – Atlantic Bluefin Individual Tuna Quota update

Amendment 13 to the HMS Fishery Management Plan – Bluefin Tuna Earlier in May 2022, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) issued its Final Environmental Impact Review (FEIR) of the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Individual Bluefin Quota (IBQ) program that began in 2015, and other changes in the bluefin fisheries. The purse seine fishery has been essentially inactive since 2015 due to size limits that generated a lot of regulatory discards. The FEIR includes options for the Pelagic Longline Fishery, the Purse Seine, Harpoon, and Angling Category, which includes a division of the North Trophy area into two separate designated