Source: CBC News
The P.E.I. bluefin tuna fishery closed Tuesday with all of this year’s quota caught in two days of fishing.
Colin MacIsaac, chief of resource management with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans on P.E.I., said about 290 Island fisherman took part and about 80 per cent of them caught a tuna.
The average weight of the approximately 390 tuna caught this year was 339 kg, and this year’s quota was 132 tons.
Fishermen don’t expect to know this year’s prices until the end of the week.
The Nova Scotia fishery also hit its quota in just two days last week, which has led some fishermen to question why scientists are considering listing the fish as endangered.
Scientists from the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada are reviewing the status of bluefin tuna stocks in the western Atlantic, and plan on making a recommendation to the federal departments of Environment and Fisheries and Oceans.
DFO has said strong stocks off P.E.I. does not mean tuna stocks are abundant everywhere.