SEA 



SCIENCE 



services, even though 

 they often choose to 

 release the catch live. 



An international 

 organization based in 

 Madrid, Spain, sets 

 landing quotas for 

 bluefin. The United 

 States has seen a 

 declining population of 

 the giant fish, which are 

 extremely popular in 

 Japanese food markets. 

 Some East Coast states 

 have commercial bluefin 

 fisheries, but North 

 Carolina is limited to a 

 recreational fishery, so 

 anglers who decide to 

 keep their bluefin cannot 

 sell it upon their return to 

 the dock. 



In early 1998, North 

 Carolina Sea Grant 

 fisheries agent Jim Bahen 

 heard reports of large 

 bluefin near Cape 

 Lookout. Few of the giant 

 fish were caught that 

 season, says Bahen, who 

 has worked with both 

 Block and Eric Prince, a 

 National Marine 

 Fisheries Service 

 researcher. Bahen is on 

 the steering committee 

 for a catch-and-release 

 symposium in December 

 in Virginia Beach. 



Bluefin, as well as 

 marlins and swordfish, 

 are considered pelagic fish because they are 

 at home in the open ocean. "They are the 

 top of the food chain," Bahen says. 



In North Carolina, he adds, the fish 

 apparendy feed on gray trout and croaker 

 as well as the more traditional diet — 

 menhaden. 



In late December 1998, the Tag-a- 

 Giant (TAG) program began looking for 



In December, boats caught one or two giant tuna per day. 



Researchers implant an archival tag in a giant tuna. 



large bluefin off Cape Lookout. The 

 California-based team, which includes 

 Block and scientists from Stanford Univer- 

 sity and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, 

 worked with the Cape Lookout Sportfishing 

 Association (CLSFA) and the Duke 

 University Marine Laboratory in Beaufort. 



The results were quite successful. The 

 two-week program was extended several 



weeks as the weather 

 cooperated, and the 

 mature fish were biting. 



"There were two hot 

 spots for the bluefin tuna 

 activity during TAG in 

 Carteret County. The first 

 was on the east side of 

 Cape Lookout Shoals 

 between the 1700 Rocks 

 and the D Wreck" says 

 Bill Hitchcock, president 

 of CLSFA and a member 

 of the North Carolina Sea 

 Grant Outreach Advisory 

 Board. 



"The second area 

 was just 6.5 miles 

 southeast of Beaufort Inlet 

 in the shallow waters 

 around the Trawler 

 Buoy," he says. 



A Cape Lookout 

 boat, trolling in areas 30 to 

 60 feet deep, would catch 

 one or two giants per day 

 in late December, but the 

 catch increased in January. 



In past years, a boat 

 fishing for tuna in deeper 

 water off Hatteras could 

 catch up to 15 smaller, 

 juvenile bluefin per day by 

 "chumming," tossing 

 chunks of menhaden as 

 bait, Bahen says. In 1998 

 and early 1999, the bluefin 

 catch off Hatteras was 

 significantly lower. 



Bluefin anglers brave 

 winter weather to meet the 

 challenge of reeling in the giant fish. "It is 

 something we have never seen here before. 

 There is a tremendous pull — that's the 

 thrill," Bahen says. Safety precautions 

 include strapping the fisher into a chair 

 during the catch. 



On New Year's Eve, Ron Purser of 

 Newport caught a nearly 600-pound 

 bluefin while fishing aboard the Delta 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 25 



