Table 30 Release and recovery data for bluefin tuna tagged in St. Margaret's Bay, Nova Scotia and recovered elsewhere, 

 with size at recapture and months at liberty 



Recapture 



Location 



Date 



Weight Liberty 



Cape Cod, Massachusetts VIII- 1967 



Cape Cod, Massachusetts VIII- 1967 



Wedgeport, Nova Scotia IX- 1967 



Cape Cod, Ma.ssachusetLs VI- 1969 



Prince Edward Island, Canada VII- 1974 



46° 40' N 63° 50' W 

 Cape Elizabeth, Maine VIII-1974 



43 30' N 70° 06' W 

 Chaleur Bay, New Brunswick VIII- 1975 



48° 08' N 64° 56' W 

 Prince Edward Island, Canada IX-1975 



47° 06' N 63° 55' W 

 Prince Edward Island, Canada IX-1975 



46° 29' N 62° or W 

 Prince Edward Island, Canada IX-1975 



46° 31' N 62° 07' W 

 Prince Edward Island, Canada X-1976 



46° 28' N 62° 44' W 

 Chaleur Bay, New Brunswick VIII- 1 976 



48° 09' N 64° 54' W 



11.3 



others travelled from Notre Dame 

 Bay to St. Margaret's Bay, Nova 

 Scotia, one in 47 months and the 

 other in 59 months One tuna moved 

 from Notre Dame Bay m August 1 972 

 to the southern extremity of the Grand 

 Banks in December 1973. The times 

 at liberty for the recaptured fish var- 

 ied from a few days to nearly six 

 years. 



Cooperating sport fishermen also 

 marked 1 1 7 giant tunas in New En- 

 gland waters, and 17 returns have 

 resulted (Table 32) All but one re- 

 capture were local, after penods of 

 from a few days to about three years. 

 The exception was a fish released 

 July 22, 1974, in Massachusetts Bay 

 off Boston and recaptured May 13, 

 1 975, in the Gulf of Mexico off south- 



western Florida (Figure 79) All the 

 giant bluefin marked in New England 

 and Canadian waters were tagged 

 during the summer-fall feeding sea- 

 son (July-October), and all but two 

 of the recaptures occurred in the same 

 general area and season This group 

 of recaptures shows that large blue- 

 fin move freely within the waters be- 

 tween Cape Cod and Newfoundland, 

 and return to them year af\er year. 



Evidently fish off northern New 

 England and off Canada arc of a 

 single stock, or of stocks which are 

 only partially separated The only 

 "direct" migrations, however, have 

 been one from St. Margaret's Bay to 

 Wedgeport and four from that Bay 

 mto the Gulf of St Laurence. None 

 of the recorded movements from 



Nova Scotia to New England and 

 from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia 

 or New England have occurred within 

 a single season 



The two returns from outsule Ca- 

 nadian and New England coastal wa- 

 ters provide more significant indica- 

 tions of migratory patterns The De- 

 cember recapture, at the southern end 

 of the Grand Banks, of a giant blue- 

 fin which had been tagged in New- 

 foundland coastal waters 16 months 

 previously may show the initiation 

 of a southerly migratory route even 

 though it was not a direct migration. 

 The migration from New England 

 coastal waters in July to the Gulf of 

 Mexico in the following May pro- 

 vides the first definite and "direct" 

 connection between the giant bluefin 



117 



