Bluefin tuna fishermen on Cape Cod Bay, in Massachusetts, USA are angry that while they have endured a disappointing season, a much larger fishing boat netted 62 of the prize fish, violating what they say was a gentleman's agreement.
Last week, the North Queen, an 84-foot purse seiner based in New Bedford, Mass., was guided to a school of tuna by a spotter plane flying overhead. It scooped up the fish within sight of local fishermen in smaller boats, who have caught about half of last year's catch.
"It's a crime. We had an agreement with them (not to fish in Cape Cod Bay). They shouldn't be fishing there," said Peter Weiss, president of the General Category Tuna Association.
Most tuna fishermen are limited to between one and three fish per day caught by rod and reel, or with a harpoon. Purse seiners - only five of which are permitted in New England - are capable of catching hundreds of tuna a day by encircling whole schools in a big net and hauling them in.
Atlantic bluefin tuna are highly coveted for top-grade sushi in Japan and can net as much as $30 per pound, depending on quality. With bluefin tuna weighing from 300 to more than 1,000 pounds, one fish can net between $2,400 and $9,000. By comparison, fishermen receive between $3 and $5 per pound for lobster and about $1 per pound for cod.
"Years ago that bay was covered in tuna fish," said Kevin Scola, a tuna fisherman based in Marshfield. "I remember days standing on pulpit and seeing five or six bunches, with 500 to 600 a bunch."
Scola is convinced that bluefin tuna imprint on an area, and return year after year. When purse seiners catch a whole school that memory dies with that group - and bad tuna years in Cape Cod Bay always followed big catches by the seiner fleet in the years before, he said.
Weiss said by a "gentleman's agreement," reached some years ago, purse seiners agreed to stay out of Cape Cod Bay and let smaller, less seaworthy, vessels catch tuna in the calmer inshore waters.
But East Coast Tuna Association executive director Rich Ruais, who represents the five seiner boats, said a May 2001 letter from state Division of Marine Fisheries director Paul Diodati spelled out an agreement that the purse seiner boats would "endeavor" not to catch tuna in Cape Cod Bay. He said the North Queen's decision to fish in Cape Cod Bay was dictated by economic necessity.
"It's been a bad year for everybody, but somebody has to catch their quota," Ruais said. "It's October 2 and you never know when the tuna will leave. Nobody owns those fish until they are on the back of the boat."