Current Bluefin Tuna Regs

[dfish28]

Lol ^^^^^^^^^^^ just one more inch and your perfect

[capt. carl]

Yes Gerry....
Also....remember...the vessel can't be registered under 2 permits. If you get the Hms Charter/Headboat permit, there has to be a licensed captain onboard.....if no captain shows, you cant just switch over to the Angling catagory for the day.
And if you fish commercially, yes you need commercial safety gear onboard just like all the big commercial boats have.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Thanks Captain Carl....

So it looks like you can't switch back and forth between charter head boat and recreational angling permits...

Bernies post would indicate if you had a charter head boat permit and commercial you could choose which one to use, right??

So as an expample, I go out and decide to keep a 73 inch tuna. If could then keep another over 73 under the commercial permit and not keep anything under 73. Or I could keep the 1 73 as my once a year fish under the charter headboat permit and then keep an over and under fish??

[capt. carl]

Now you got it bro!
Yup....and don t forget if fishing commercially, u must comply with commercial safety regulations!

[BWhaler23]

Now I'm confused and also suffered heat stroke this week so my brains may still be a little scrambled, but lets see if I got this stright....I have a captains license, and the boat is registered commercially, and I have the headboat/charterboat HMS license. From what I understand if I take paying customers I have to abide by recreational rules, but I can make a commercial trip and commercial rules apply, and if memory serves me, I don't need the commercial safety gear, that would only apply if I had a general or commercial only license, also the safety gear would depend on size of crew/vessel. It was a bad week to get sick, would have been a good time to try and look for some bluefin.

Capt. Pat

[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......