Contact: Gordon Helm FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
6/25/97
The National Marine Fisheries Service has issued its final 1997 Atlantic bluefin tuna category allocations for U.S. fishermen, the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced today.
The final allocation cuts the Reserve quota from 145 mt to 33 mt, maintains the Purse Seine quota at 250 mt, leaves the Incidental longline quota unchanged at 110 mt, increases the General category quota from 531 mt to 633 mt, maintains the Harpoon category quota at 53 mt, and increases the Angling category quota from 222 mt to 265 mt.
The allocations determine how much of the total U.S. quota - 1,344 metric tons - can be caught by fishermen in each of five Atlantic bluefin tuna fishing categories. In addition, a Reserve is set aside to allow the fisheries service to transfer quota, if necessary, to prevent overages. The total quota was assigned to the United States at the November 1996 meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas and represents a modest increase of 33 mt over 1996.
The 1997 allocation has been modified from 1996 quotas by the fisheries service to reflect both scientific monitoring requirements and recent trends in the fishing fleet.
According to fisheries service officials, the 145 mt quota increase among the General and Angling categories is needed to improve bluefin science by keeping the General and Angling category fisheries open as long as possible to achieve high survey sampling rates over the widest possible geographic area and longest possible fishing season. These categories provide data on large fish and small fish catch rates, which are important indices for stock assessments. The fisheries service feels a 33 mt reserve for 1997 is adequate due to improved measures for monitoring quotas of all categories that are being implemented.
In addition, the fisheries service also is responding to recommendations from the National Research Council by increasing its scientific data gathering and tagging studies for 1997. The increase to the Angling category will be used partially to cover harvest that has occurred during the collection of additional scientific information on the winter fishery off North Carolina. About 150 archival tags were surgically implanted in bluefin to gather additional data on their movement and thereby study stock mixing between the east and west Atlantic bluefin populations.
ICCAT stated in the 1996 session that large numbers of archival tagged fish would be necessary to resolve questions about western and eastern stock mixing. The concentration of bluefin tuna off North Carolina and high catch rates made this an ideal location for these additional needed scientific programs. The increase to the Angling category quota also will be used in the collection of additional data on the use of circle hooks to reduce hooking mortality, and maturation rates for bluefin of all sizes throughout their geographic range. The high numbers of tagged fish released from the North Carolina winter fishery should provide increased opportunities for tag recoveries in summer feeding areas.
Based on a revised stock assessment, ICCAT member countries recommended an increase in the annual quota of bluefin tuna in the western Atlantic Ocean from 2,200 metric tons (mt) to 2,354 mt to be shared by the United States, Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom (Bermuda). The U.S. portion of the overall quota increased slightly from 1,311 mt to 1,344 mt.
A table depicting the ABT quotas is available by fax from the public affairs office by calling (301) 713-2370.
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