Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Fisheries; Atlantic Bluefin Tuna
NMFS adjusts the October-December subquota for the General category Atlantic bluefin tuna (BFT) fishery by transferring 50 metric tons (mt) from the Longline South subcategory quota, 10 mt from the Longline North subquota, and 100 mt from the Angling category (50 mt from the school size class and 50 mt from the large school/small medium size class for the northern area), for a revised coastwide General category subquota of approximately 347.7 mt for October-December, including the addition of underharvest from previous time periods. NMFS also adjusts the Angling South large school/small medium subcategory by transferring 75 mt from the Angling North large school/small medium subcategory. Finally, NMFS adjusts the BFT General category daily retention limit to one fish per vessel. These actions are being taken to allow for maximum utilization of the U.S. landings quota of BFT while maintaining a fair distribution of fishing opportunities, preventing overharvest of the adjusted subquotas for the affected fishing categories, helping to achieve optimum yield in the General category fishery, and allowing the collection of a broad range of data for stock monitoring purposes, consistent with the objectives of the Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Tunas, Swordfish, and Sharks (HMS FMP).
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration