August 9, 2012 — Shark River charter captain Mike Formichella was tagging and releasing Atlantic bluefin tuna over the Resor wreck 30 miles offshore, when he was surprised to reel in a 30-pound fish with a tag already in it. As an experienced fish tagger Formichella knew what to do — return to sender. He snipped the tag, took it home and mailed it to the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, Madrid, Spain.
Then came the real surprise.
“It turns out this fish was tagged in the Bay of Biscay, which is between France and Spain, a little less than a year before. And it had doubled in weight and size,” Formicella said. “It’s pretty amazing. We knew some of them make that trek.”
The biggest tuna tagging program since the 1970s aims to answer the question of how eastern and western bluefin stocks interact. Organizers are looking for more New Jersey anglers to help, said scientist Molly Lutcavage of the Large Pelagics Research Center, who is heading up the American side of the project, based out of the University of Massachusetts marine station in Gloucester, Mass.
“What we’ve shown is that 1-year-old bluefin tuna are already crossing the Atlantic,” Lutcavage said. “What happens in the east and the Mediterranean affects our fishing, and now we have proof.’
Debate over the extent of mixing between eastern and western Atlantic bluefin stocks has gone on for decades, with various nations and fishing industry interest groups spinning information to their advantage.
ICCAT sets tuna fishing limits for all Atlantic fishing nations. Getting better science on Atlantic crossings is a priority for its researchers, who plan to deploy 15,000 tags in tuna over three years. In partnership with ICCAT and the National Marine Fisheries Service, Lutcavage’s group aims to get 4,000 tages into 1- to 3-year-old bluefin on this side of the ocean.
Read the full story in the Asbury Park Press