Plan Would Allow Filleting Tuna At Seaff

The National Marine Fisheries Service is considering allowing the filleting of Atlantic tunas aboard party and charter boats at sea, and the idea is getting wide support among canyon fishermen.

One of the problems canyon fishermen have had with the prohibition on filleting at sea is preservation of the catch and room. This would be eased with an allowance.

James A. Donofrio, executive director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance, has urged the service's highly migratory species management division to adopt the proposal.

”Head boats and large charter boats that fish offshore for tuna and other highly migratory species operate nearly every day during the summer and fall months,” he pointed out.

”These trips typically are overnight trips carrying 10 to 50 patrons,” he continued. “Tuna, on average, are large and tend to be more difficult and time consuming to fillet or steak properly compared to many other recreationally caught species. By allowing filleting at sea, the catch can be prepared and put on ice much sooner than if cleaning were only allowed to be performed upon returning to the dock,” he added.

”This is better for public safety since tuna deteriorate quickly in the warm summer and fall months. Preparing tuna sooner also improves the quality of the meat and, ultimately, angler satisfaction,” he said.

Donofrio stressed that the season is relatively short and the time needed for cleaning fish and preparing the boat for back-to-back sailings is at a premium.

”Allowing filleting at sea will have a positive socio-economic benefit on the fleet by requiring less time onboard for crew once the vessel has docked,” he said. “We do not believe that allowing filleting at sea will compromise enforcement of size limits, retention limits and species identification of tuna caught,” he explained. “In recent years, 23 Coast Guard-inspected vessels have been granted exempted fishing permits enabling them to fillet tuna at sea.”

”These permits are contingent upon participating vessels retaining the racks of filleted tunas and making them available for inspection when prompted by authorized enforcement agents,” he said.

”Size, species and bag limits can be determined using this method and we suggest that this practice be implemented in Amendment 2 . . . and this privilege should not be limited to a set number of vessels, but should apply to all vessels that agree to comply with the requirements of the permit,” he concluded.

The RFA has also opposed the idea of consolidating the management plan for billfish with those of other highly migratory species, and Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-NJ, has written Dr. William Hogarth, assistant administrator for fisheries, NMFS, urging him not to follow through on the consolidation idea.

”This change, listed in the pre-draft of the Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Fishery Management Plan, could have serious impacts on the health of Atlantic billfish stocks and on New Jersey's recreational fishing industry,” Pallone stressed.

”Billfish, including white and blue marlin, sailfish and spearfish have long been part of an almost exclusively recreational fishery that is 99 percent catch-and-release,” he pointed out.

Pallone explained that the billfish plan's two main objectives — maintaining the highest availability of billfishes to the recreational fishery through conservation measures to reduce fishing mortality and optimizing the social and economic benefits to the nation by reserving the fish for traditional use — would be lost if the fish were lumped with tunas and sharks and come under International Commission for Conservation of Atlantic Tuna quotas.