Atlantic Billfish, Swordfish, and Tunas Landings Update
NOAA Fisheries announced landings updates for Atlantic swordfish, billfish, and tunas, including bluefin, yellowfin, bigeye, skipjack, and albacore. This update include all landings between January 1st and March 31st of 2020. The 250-fish recreational Atlantic billfish quota includes landings of blue marlin, white marlin, and roundscale spearfish. As of March 31, 2020, no Atlantic billfish had been landed that are counted in the quota. However, five Atlantic sailfish have been landed, but these fish will not be counted in the 250-fish quota. Swordfish landing is up in in 2020 as compared to 2019. Between January 1st and March 31st
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
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
2019 Recreational Atlantic Billfish Landings Updates
NOAA just released the 1st quarter landing update for the recreational fishing community. While only 1 blue marlin has been landed in the 1st quarter, we expect the number of fish to be reported will increase by the 2nd quarter due to tournament season. Landings are compiled using self-reported angler reports from the Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Non-Tournament Recreational Swordfish and Billfish Landings Database; tournament landings from the Atlantic Tournament Registration & Reporting system; catch card reports from North Carolina and Maryland; and individual billfish intercepted by the Large Pelagic Survey and Marine Recreational Information Program. Please note that
