BLUEFIN BOUNTY
Tuna campaigners step up the chase for a recreational fishery
The campaign for a recreational fishery
Campaigners are lobbying the UK Government to establish a more wide-ranging catch, tag and release programme for Atlantic bluefin tuna in UK waters this year. It follows hot on the heels of the announcement that Ireland’s successful bluefin tagging project will be extended and take place from July 1 to November 20. It is hoped the UK programme would be similar to the Irish scheme. A meeting has been secured to press the matter further.
The ultimate goal of campaign group Bluefin Tuna UK and the Angling Trust is to achieve a recreational catch and release tuna fishery. They predict such a fishery would boost the economy for hard-pressed coastal communities, including charter boat operators and tackle shops.
In 2018 and 2019, DEFRA and CEFAS operated the ThunnusUK project, placing satellite tags in 39 bluefins to find out more about the movements of tuna in our waters.
Following lobbying from the campaigners, limited numbers of accredited recreational anglers were allowed to take part in the tagging in 2019. They also secured an expansion in the ThunnusUK area of operations to include Welsh waters and those off the Outer Hebrides. However, only nine days involving these anglers took place. It was blamed on the late approval of angler involvement, bad weather and competing demands of tagging in Wales. Of the 26 fish tagged off Cornwall, and three in Wales, only three were caught by the recreational anglers.
The Scottish approval came very late in the year. Conditions were against the capture team, with no fish tagged, but observations confirmed the presence of bluefins in those waters.
Given the continued return of bluefins each summer to UK waters, the Government is considering extending the original two-year mandate of ThunnusUK into 2020. Any expanded recreational input, like that in Ireland which uses floy or ‘spaghetti’ tags, could be in addition to ThunnusUK’s satellite tagging.
As for 2021 and the longer term, any demand for a tuna fishery would have to be based on the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) quota. In November, ICCAT has its triennial meeting, which would
offer an opportunity for the UK Government to request a quota, to be applied from 2021. Things need to move quickly, though, because campaigners must persuade the Government to commit to this by the summer, and then gather the evidence ICCAT requires in time for that crucial meeting in November.
WIDER PROGRAMME
The Angling Trust backed the move in 2019 to expand Thunnus UK’s operations to include Wales and Scotland, and the inclusion of experienced recreational anglers in the process.
“Even if the satellite tagging operations of Thunnus UK are extended into this year, a wider UK floy tagging programme would add significantly to the baseline knowledge of that programme, with potentially hundreds of catch, tag and release events all across the UK waters,” said David Mitchell, the Angling Trust’s head of marine.
While satellite tagging provides much-needed information, several other European countries have taken a different route to this small-scale tagging. Recent rule changes by ICCAT allowed Ireland, Denmark and Sweden to operate wider scale research programmes using large numbers of recreational anglers to catch, tag and release bluefins. Instead of the expensive satellite tags, simple floy tags were applied. The fish were measured and details of time and place of capture recorded.
Ireland’s CatcH And Release Tagging (CHART) programme in 2019 was hugely successful, tagging 219 bluefins from 15 authorised vessels. Denmark tagged 91 fish in 2018 and 50 fish last year. Such was the Irish programme’s success, it was announced in February that it will be repeated and expanded in 2020, and potentially 2021 and 2022. Now, between July 1 to November 12, up to 25 authorised vessels will be allowed to take paying anglers out to catch bluefins for this programme.
FIGHT CONTINUES
Bluefin Tuna UK and the Angling Trust have secured a meeting with DEFRA officials to discuss such a CHART programme for the UK to be authorised.
In line with their ultimate aim to see the establishment of a recreational bluefin tuna fishery in UK waters, they will continue to lobby the Government to obtain the necessary quota at November’s ICCAT meeting, and authorise such a fishery from 2021.
“We believe the UK should take the opportunity afforded by ICCAT rule changes to facilitate a wider, more inclusive catch, tag and release programme for bluefin in UK waters this year,” said Steve Murphy, founder of the Bluefin Tuna UK campaign.
“Several European countries have done so with great success over the last few years, and there are very compelling arguments for the UK to follow this lead. In addition to the much larger-scale scientific data that can be gathered, hundreds of anglers operating on dozens of specifically trained and authorised charter vessels would bring significant economic benefits to many hard-pressed coastal communities.”