Current Bluefin Tuna Regs

[capt. carl]

Whaler..
Under the rules of the Charter/Headboat permit....
If you have paying customers and you take and keep a fish under 73 inches, you are fishing on the recreational side of the permit...(allowed 1 over and 1 under).u can still take 1 trophy per year....unless you harvested that trophy already....the safety gear is not required on these
Trips (ie...raft, survival suits for every person onboard, Type 1 Auto Epirb instead of Type 2 Manual deployed)).
I am goinh to double check on this but i was told , If you fish the commercial side of the permit and take the 3 fish at 73 and over...you are now just like a liveliner or scalloper and all the applicable safety gear must be onboard as well...and you ARE REQUIRED to sell that catch to a dealer.....cant just go out and say I'm fishing commercially, catch your 3 big ones and then keep the catch for yourself.
Will definately find the correct answer for us....in the meantime, anyone who fishes commercially on these permits can maybe chime in?

[Gerry Zagorski]

^^^^^ All starting to make sense now. I guess that's why when you fish for Giants with the commercial guys up in Gloucester, you can't keep any fish. By law the boats have to sell them.

I guess if you as a for hire headboat or charter, or recreational angling permit, could keep 1 giant a year if you wanted to, but you are not allowed to sell them.

Now we need to be able to indentify the different tunas... Here is a helpful chart I found on the NMFS site. Probably something handy to print out and have with you on the boat. http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/hms/Tun...e_Aug_2012.pdf

[Sharkyispy]

Originally Posted by capt. carl

Whaler..
Under the rules of the Charter/Headboat permit....
If you have paying customers and you take and keep a fish under 73 inches, you are fishing on the recreational side of the permit...(allowed 1 over and 1 under).u can still take 1 trophy per year....unless you harvested that trophy already....the safety gear is not required on these
Trips (ie...raft, survival suits for every person onboard, Type 1 Auto Epirb instead of Type 2 Manual deployed)).
I am goinh to double check on this but i was told , If you fish the commercial side of the permit and take the 3 fish at 73 and over...you are now just like a liveliner or scalloper and all the applicable safety gear must be onboard as well...and you ARE REQUIRED to sell that catch to a dealer.....cant just go out and say I'm fishing commercially, catch your 3 big ones and then keep the catch for yourself.
Will definately find the correct answer for us....in the meantime, anyone who fishes commercially on these permits can maybe chime in?

You've got it......I'll see if I can upload what I have form Tuna.com for our reservation that outlines these items......

[BWhaler23]

In any event, I can't wait to have the probem.... but it's good to know before U go..

[bigal427]

What are the fines for illegal Bluefin ?

[Gerry Zagorski]

Good question but I couldn't find anything online about fines, other then I saw where one guy in Florida who took and sold one when the season was closed. He was fined $800 and a number of days of community service but there was also a resisting arrest charge in the mix.