Bringing in the big ones
P.E.I. tuna fishery just getting started
His first, and last, trip to the tuna grounds off North Cape this year was a successful one for Alberton captain Wayne Wallace and his crew of family and friends.
They set sail on the Ocean Drifter out of Alberton harbour at 4:30 a.m. on Thursday and they were back in port six hours later with a 744-pound bluefin.
“I didn’t think he was that big,” Captain Wallace said, indicating he thought the fish probably weighed 500 to 600 pounds.
After bringing the fish onboard, he then upped his estimate to between 700 and 750 pounds before learning just how close the scales put the weight to his higher guess.
“No wonder he was fighting so hard.”
For the trip, Wallace had onboard his wife, Jennifer, his sons Ben, Dawson and Jack, and friends Valerie Harper and Pierre and Karen Gallant.
“I’m done; my rigging’s going home,” Wallace said of his limited participation in Prince Edward Island’s tuna fishery this year.
While some fishermen might have a second shot at tuna, depending how many are caught in the first allocation and how much the fish weigh, Wallace said he won a second allocation last year so he won’t be eligible for a second fish in 2017.
The season opened Aug. 2 and, so far, only about a dozen tuna have been landed.
There are 308 eligible tuna fishermen in P.E.I. and each one is permitted one fish during the first allocation, which runs until Sept. 26. Some fishermen, the number to be determined by the amount of quota remaining, will be awarded one tag each for a second allocation that starts Sept. 29 and runs until Dec. 31 or until the allocation is reached, whichever comes first.