important Many additional fish of 

 ages 5 and over were taken in thiis 

 period but were discarded because 

 they were not acceptable to most of 

 the canneries (several eyewitness re- 

 ports, personal communications). 

 Also many fish were lost when nets 

 burst, or were discarded when the 

 catch exceeded the remaining carr)'- 

 ing capacity of the vessels (the data 

 sources are the same as above, in 

 addition to incidents witnessed by 

 some of the authors and their col- 

 leagues) After 1966, fish of age 2 

 usually dominated the catch. Since 

 1974 the New England based seiners 

 have generally avoided age 1 fish as 

 a voluntary conservation measure 

 Since midsummer 1975, their cap- 

 ture has been prohibited in conform- 

 ance with the ICCAT regulations It 

 appears, however, that in most years 

 full recruitment to the fishery does 

 not occur until age 2. 



The size composition data give 

 indications of strong-year classes 

 The year class of 1938 was dominant 

 in the New York Bight in 1941 in 

 1 95 1 the year class of 1 950 showed 

 up very strongly in the catches, but 

 no sampling was earned out It was 

 very prominent, however, in the 1952 

 sample. The class of 1958 was con- 

 spicuous in the 1960 and 1962 

 samples The class of 1 965 was domi- 

 nant in the 1966 seine fishery, and 

 showed up strongly in 1 967 and 1 968 

 Data for 1974, 1975, and 1976 indi- 

 cate a very strong year class of 1973. 

 Sport fishing for giant bluefin 

 off New York Harbor was fruitftil in 

 the 1930s (Farrington 1939), but de- 

 clined after World War II Late in the 

 1940s, a new giant tuna ground was 

 discovered near the western coast of 

 Rhode Island (Farrington 1949) This 

 was productive for some years, but 

 after 1960 successfiil seasons became 

 infrequent More recently, giant tuna 

 have been caught farther off the 

 Rhode Island and eastern Long Is- 

 land shores, in areas where the tunas 

 follow the nets of trawlers as they are 

 being hauled to the surface This fish- 

 ing has usually been most successful 

 in late summer and early fall After 

 being absent for many years, some 

 giant bluefin have been taken off 

 northern New Jersey or during the 

 later part of some recent seasons. 



Table 7. Landings data from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1974. 



These sport catches of giant tuna were 

 usually unimportant in numbers, but 

 did document their seasonal occur- 

 rence in the area. 



At the other end of the size range, 

 runs of very small (age 0) bluefin (1- 

 2 kg) occasionally occur in this area 

 from late July into October. These 

 are most common in late summed 

 and early fall, and from northern New 

 Jersey southward to Cape Hatteras 

 They are of no significance to the 

 fishery, but the biological informa- 

 tion obtained from them has been a 

 ver\' important step in understanding 

 the life history of the species 



c. Atlantic Ocean outside 200 

 meter contour N of 35°N 

 andWof40°W 



During the cold season, the blue- 

 fin tuna disappear from the summer 

 habitats described above Since 1956, 

 however, exploratory and commer- 

 cial longline activities have revealed 

 much about their oceanic distribu- 

 tion in this period (Wathne 1959, 

 Wilson and Bartlett 1967, Wise and 

 Davis 1 973) The only substantial size 

 composition data for oceanic bluefin 

 tuna catches are from the area north 

 of 35°N and west of 40°W (Figure 

 28) The most important exploratory 

 catches were near the northern edge 

 of the Gull Stream in spring, and in 

 the canyons along the edge of the 

 continental shelf in fall (Mather and 

 Bartlett 1962). I'he majority of the 

 fish taken were in the medium (120- 

 1 85 cm) size range As in the inshore 

 fisheries, however, the average size 

 of the fish taken, as well as the size 

 of the smallest fish taken, increased 

 markedly during the 1960s. 



Japanese longline catches in this 

 area have indicated a predominance 

 of the larger medium sized fish (about 

 100 kg) during the period from April 



through October (Shingu et al. 1975). 

 Shingu and Hisada (1976), however, 

 reported that medium-sized bluefin 

 tuna (ages 5-8) were scarce through- 

 out the Atlantic Ocean. They also 

 noted that, during the winter months, 

 December-February, considerable 

 proportions of small fish (ages 2-5) 

 have appeared in the catches of re- 

 cent years in the waters off New En- 

 gland 



d. Bahamas and Southeastern 

 Florida 



I'he only bluefin fishery in the 

 western Atlantic south of 35°N for 

 which there is significant size com- 

 position data IS the sport fishery off 

 the northwestern Bahamas (Cat Cay 

 and Bimini) (Figure 29). All the fish 

 taken are giants, over 185 cm and 

 122 kg (Figure 30), and are caught 

 in May and June Usually the fish are 

 caught from schools which are trav- 

 elling northward along the edge of 

 the Great Bahama Bank, but on rare 

 occasions they are taken from schools 

 which are "smashing" (feeding on 

 the surface, often jumping clear of 

 the water) farther offshore. This fish- 

 ery has varied somewhat in recent 

 years, with a general tendency to de- 

 cline Many of the fish have been 

 released after being brought to the 

 boat We have some weight records 

 for more recent years, however, 

 which, although few in number, con- 

 stitute representative samples These 

 samples indicate that the modal sizes 

 and minimum sizes of the fish taken 

 in this fishery have increased steadily 

 in recent years Rivas (1976) showed 

 that the mean length of the males 

 which he had measured in the years 

 1972-1973 at the Bahamas was 25 

 cm longer than the mean of those 

 which he had measured in the years 

 1952-1 955 For the same periods, the 



27 



