The Tuna off of Ireland

As some of you may be aware, there is an upsurge in Tuna fishing off of the Irish coast after a absence of around 40 years.

Is it therefore right for anglers to kill these rare fish once landed for personnal glory?

Is it not better to tag and release these fish and study there numbers/migration routes to understand them?

As anglers, do we have the right to complain about overfishing affecting sport, yet still kill what can only be described as a magnificent fish?

There..that should spark off a debate

Rob, I think you may be right. These bluefins take decades to get that big, and I'd have thought they wouldn't be impossible to unhook. The occasional one for the skipper's profit, maybe, and no more.
If my guess is right, the Spanish trawlermen will pretty soon cotton on to the fishery and appear like a shower of b**tards off the West coast. Then they'll clean it out then claim compensation cos there aren't any left. Then it will be immaterial whether anglers put them back.

Its terrible to kill these fish, we use to have a British Tunny Club many years ago and the North Sea was full of them!

I agree with you Rob. What's the current market price for one of those babies now? ?25000 each or more? I've watched the American trawlermen and the very carefully controlled measures they take to only catch the correct amount only for the bloody japanese to swoop in and hoover the lot up.

I have fished for Tuna in SE Asia, and ALL tunny were tagged and returned...which is suprising out there! The lures were on tubes so that you could run the lure up the line, cut the line near the hook, and off they would swim. Wonderful.

I just worry that these beasts will be wiped out before they get a foot hold.

I would argue that anglers and skippers do have a right to kill some of these fish. The EU commission has already set up quotas back in 1998 detailing exact fishing grounds and amounts of Blue fin tuna to be taken in a year. The figures reflect a catch that would not inhibit the growth of the population of Blue fin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic. This figure currently stands at 2700 metric tonnes per year (fish taken by sport anglers). Projects to tag bluefin tuna in order to study population size, growth and movement of such fish in the Eastern Atlantic had already been completed as early as 1995 in order to justify accurate fishing rights that would not inhibit population growth. The tagging scheme and thus the research has been and gone. Why shouldn't these skippers take some fish. If they are worth that much then fair play to the skippers who have taken the time to learn the techniques to fish for large game fish, located the shoals in the first place, marketed their business etc not to mention the vast financial outlay of specialist tackle and boats required. It seems in Britain we are over protective of our species to a degree that is laughable to most other countries in the world. Let us not forget that species like carp were introduced purely as an eating fish. People who fish in the sea have the right to kill their catch if they so wish. This should not detract from using the tube lures and fish friendly methods employed in some areas of the world if anglers want to return their fish to fight another day. People pay a lot of money to fish for such species and deserve their prize if they wish to keep it.

No doubt this relatively new industry is creating work for people who live near the coast in a time when unemployment in commercial fishing is at an all time high.

Richard.

In reference to the Monk's argument about the Tunny club. THe Tuny fishing was not destroyed because of the fish taken by the tunny fisherman on rod and line but by the massive overfishing of their food source, the vast shoals of herring that used to frequent our coast.

Error above, on the fourth line the brackets should include the phrase (fish taken by commercial fisherman and sport anglers).

Sorry!

Richard

Also the fish do not take decades to get that big. Athough some do live to a ripe old age it is fairly uncommon for fish to exceed more than 20 year life spans (maximum).

You've misread me Richard, sports fisherman could never have contributed to that extent, I was merely pointing out that Tunny where so prolific in the North Sea that we had a national club which supported them. Naturally they were over fished commercially! Actually I have a video taken from some old super 8 footage, bridlington with the Tunny club, having their boats dragged around by huge Tunny, its very sad really that we have lost such a fine specie>

The commercial value of a single fish usually means that they will be sold, but if anyone thinks that the twenty or so fish taken off the Irish charter boats in a season is likely to affect the population... as people have pointed out the big commercial trawlers can hoover up an entire shoal in a matter of hours.

Unlike in the UK, fish taken from a charter boat can be sold legally in Ireland, most probably down to the fact that lots of the charter boats are half deckers that spend the off season in traditional fishing set-up. My own view (FWIW) is that it is up to the skippers to strongly recommend Catch & Release for all non-record or specimen fish of ALL species. Not everyone practices it.

I think it`s a absolute disgrace to kill these fish,catch and release is the way to go as the stocks of these magnificent fish are very few and far between,maybe if we looked after are own stocks a bit better then there would be plenty of blue fin tuna for everyone to catch and not just two or three fish a year which get killed i think just for greed.
cheers,AJB

Same's been happening on the Volga Delta, not many big sturgeon left now!

Hello Monk,

I've seen the old footage of the Tunny fisherman as well. It was strange in that they seemed to fish from ridiculously small boats! Don't know if they were just landing the fish in the small boats (whilst starting fishing from a larger vessel) or they cast struck and played from the small boat all along. even so, quite mad stuff.

RIch

This research paper into the species in the East Atlantic may prove interesting reading.

http://www.soc.uoc.gr/calendar/2000EAERE/papers/PDF/D2-Brasao.pdf

Hi Richard,
yes I think you maybe right about the large vessels, serious crazy stuff, thanks for the papers mate, I'll have a good ganders.

We need another world war - 5 or 6 years with nobody fishing (commercially) should sort out the fish stocks. Mind you, wouldn't be many people left to fish for them......

Another world war Dave would probably last a few weeks and you could forget the fishing after that mate!

Easier to see fish at night-they'd glow!

So would we mate?

Hi,
As the first person to actively attempt to catch Bluefin Tuna in the waters off Donegal and owner of the charter boat currently catching more Bluefin than anyone else in Ireland I guess I am responsible for the growing debate as to whether these magnificent fish should be killed. My personal opinion is that Bluefin should be all tagged and released. Strange response from the person who has caught more Bluefin than anyone else in Ireland. However ask yourselves if you would have believed in a viable big game fishery in Ireland if you had not seen the evidence in the press and on the net. The Bluefin fishery in Ireland is in it's infancy and a huge amount of interest has been generated by the catches here. To date only a small number of fish have been caught by the charter boats relative to the large numbers of fish that come to the inshore waters of the west coast to feed. It is not unusual to see many hundreds of Bluefin actively feeding on the surface in many areas along the west and north west coast of Ireland. I do not believe that the small number of fish currently taken from that stock by anglers will make one iota of a difference to the well being of the stock as a whole. However I would not like to see a situation arising where every fish caught was killed. At the moment the targetting of Bluefin for commercial sale in Ireland is illegal and I hope that the Irish government has the forsight to keep it that way. Sadly I feel that both the EU and the Irish government will give way to pressure from the commercial sector and allow a quota for Bluefin in Irish waters. This is where the real danger lies and not in the small number of fish killed by rod and line. Anyone who has ever attempted to catch Bluefin in Irish waters will quickly tell you just how difficult that is. I hope that the fishery here can be marketed on a catch and release basis and that all skippers involved in the fishery will adhere to that policy. Anglers will also have to be aware that there is a price to be paid for world class big game angling and if all fish are to be released then higher charter prices will be the result. Those of you who are really interested should request the powers that be to ensure the promotion of what is a very valuable resource on the basis of a catch and release policy. The alternative is that the EU may ban angling for Bluefin in totality in Irish waters. Do you wish to see angling for Bluefin banned ? Arguments over the small number of fish killed to date may just have that result. I firmly believe that with proper management the Bluefin fishery in Ireland could prove to be the most valuable angling resource in Europe. Don't shoot the messenger ! As far as I am aware I am the only charter skipper in Ireland to have tagged and released Bluefin Tuna. So greed is not totally paramount. Ask yourself if you would let go a fish worth many thousands of dollars ? I have - on a number of occasions this season. So please before you all become judges and jury judge yourself ! Thank you all for your interewst and the debate the issues have raised,
Tight Lines,
Adrian Molloy, Tuna Charters Ireland