Official Announcement; Tagging added to Bluefin Tuna Catch & Release Program 2010
I am extremely excited to formally announce that SaveTheBluefin will add tagging to the 2010 Catch & Release Program. Today I manned the first exhibit at Canyon Runner's tuna seminar in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Here's a look at the first SaveTheBluefin booth. Get a good look because based on today's reaction it won't be the last.
This day long seminar, in which anglers pay $100+ for admission, attracts the best private and charter boats around this region. Honestly I was not sure how my conservation angle would play here. I was prepared for serious debates on why anglers should not kill bluefin tuna. But what I got instead was a huge positive reception from almost all who came by my table. The overall feeling was one of encouragement as I heard over and over "Keep up the good fight, someone has to look out for our tuna - it's the right thing to do." I ran out of business cards and think I now have to work on getting more sponsorship deals in place to satisfy the demand. So all great problems to have.
So for the tagging, I am coordinated with the Cooperative Pelagic Tagging office from NOAA in Miami. Eric there has been amazing. From here tags will be sent directly to charter captains and qualifying private boats at no charge. Specifically for New Jersey, we lack data on exactly where the bluefin tuna go after summering off our shores. Last year we had a great cohort of fish help themselves to our sand eel buffet almost all summer and into fall. So after the buffer clears, where do they go? My hunch is that a good number of fish (maybe 20-40%) break for Eastern European shores. This tagging program will hopefully shed some light on this question. We have some great data on bluefin that summer off Cape Cod and the Carolinas but as far as I know, data on Jersey bluefin is light. Further, the benefit of coordinating the tags through SaveTheBluefin is that I can then report on aggregate data. So one lonely captain does not get one lonely tag report without the larger context of what other captains have also been seeing from returned tags.
In the coming months I will be posting more details on the tagging here on this site. Thanks to my sponsors like West Marine, RPMS, NOOA's Cooperative Tagging Center, Seafood Watch Program and some of the top charter captains like Gene Quigley from Shore Catch, Al Andersen from The Prowler and to my friends in the commercial harpoon category Ralph and Michael Pratt, for without their support all this would not be possible.
So lots more to come here on promoting catch and release of bluefin tuna and tagging for the good of research and increased knowledge of exactly where these wonderful tuna go after they leave our shores.
This day long seminar, in which anglers pay $100+ for admission, attracts the best private and charter boats around this region. Honestly I was not sure how my conservation angle would play here. I was prepared for serious debates on why anglers should not kill bluefin tuna. But what I got instead was a huge positive reception from almost all who came by my table. The overall feeling was one of encouragement as I heard over and over "Keep up the good fight, someone has to look out for our tuna - it's the right thing to do." I ran out of business cards and think I now have to work on getting more sponsorship deals in place to satisfy the demand. So all great problems to have.
So for the tagging, I am coordinated with the Cooperative Pelagic Tagging office from NOAA in Miami. Eric there has been amazing. From here tags will be sent directly to charter captains and qualifying private boats at no charge. Specifically for New Jersey, we lack data on exactly where the bluefin tuna go after summering off our shores. Last year we had a great cohort of fish help themselves to our sand eel buffet almost all summer and into fall. So after the buffer clears, where do they go? My hunch is that a good number of fish (maybe 20-40%) break for Eastern European shores. This tagging program will hopefully shed some light on this question. We have some great data on bluefin that summer off Cape Cod and the Carolinas but as far as I know, data on Jersey bluefin is light. Further, the benefit of coordinating the tags through SaveTheBluefin is that I can then report on aggregate data. So one lonely captain does not get one lonely tag report without the larger context of what other captains have also been seeing from returned tags.
In the coming months I will be posting more details on the tagging here on this site. Thanks to my sponsors like West Marine, RPMS, NOOA's Cooperative Tagging Center, Seafood Watch Program and some of the top charter captains like Gene Quigley from Shore Catch, Al Andersen from The Prowler and to my friends in the commercial harpoon category Ralph and Michael Pratt, for without their support all this would not be possible.
So lots more to come here on promoting catch and release of bluefin tuna and tagging for the good of research and increased knowledge of exactly where these wonderful tuna go after they leave our shores.
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