FIVE TUNA LANDED

Fishery doesn’t normally ramp up until September

The Island’s tuna fleet has landed only five of the big fish since the season opened Aug. 1, but fishermen say the season will not ramp up until September.

Michael McInnis’s tuna season is over before most members of the Island’s fleet even toss a baited hook over the sides of their boats.

The Island’s fleet has landed only five of the big fish since the season opened Aug. 1, and McInnis has one of them.

“I was just about to take in the hooks and call it a day when it struck,” he said.

The fish gave him a 45-minute fight before he was able to bring it alongside his boat.

He would not normally be fishing for tuna this early in the season, but his brother and family were home from Western Canada so he took them out recently and came back with a fish that weighed 555 pounds.

While some captains prefer to wait until the tuna have been around a while and have fattened up in hopes of a better price, McInnis said he waited last year and had to settle for a low price.

His fish was sent to the Boston Seafood Market on consignment, so he won’t know how he fared for another week or so.

Doug Fraser, a member of the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association’s tuna advisory committee, said there have been three good-sized fish landed in western P.E.I. over the past week and two smaller ones in eastern P.E.I. prior to that.

“As we move into September, the next four or five weeks, it really ramps up pretty quickly.”

Fraser said every member of the tuna fleet is entitled to one tuna tag for use during the initial tuna season that runs until late September. After that, some fishermen will be awarded a second tag based on how much quota remains and on where they are positioned on a list of participants.

Fraser said there does seem to be fewer tuna around so far this season, but he said baitfish, like herring, haven’t arrived.

“Everything is migrating together,” he said, suggesting tuna will arrive in larger numbers once their food source swims in.

“It’s slow. It’s slow everywhere,” charter boat captain Kenny McRae reported. He hopes Fraser’s expectation is correct. “We hope. Who knows with fish?