May 18, 2012 – Seeking to meet an international requirement, the National Marine Fisheries Service is exploring and gathering ideas for ways to minimize the waste of discarded bluefin tuna — the most prized of all fin fish and the species most fiercely fought over by fishermen and environmentalists.
Among the options discussed in a scoping document is commodifying the market to trade in bluefin catch shares, adopting the controversial management system that now rules the New England groundfishery.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last year denied an application to put the global migrator on the endangered species list. But bluefin remain a NOAA species of concern and is on a watch list "about its status and threats to the species," according to the NMFS "scoping document," which discusses possible solutions to U.S. management of the tuna.
NMFS held a scoping hearing Wednesday night in Gloucester, part of a series that began in New Jersey, and will move on to Louisiana, North Carolina, and New York City before wrapping up in Portland, Maine, the week of June 17.
The comment period for scoping a new management plan ends July 15, after which NMFS will produce its proposal, and put it out for public comment.
NMFS is moving to rewrite a 13-year-old fishery management plan to reduce dead discards — which result largely from legal long-line fishing for swordfish and other kinds of tuna.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Times.