A 140kg bluefin tuna caught by Helen O’Neill off Pedra Branca in late February 2018. Photo: Florian Devloo-Delva.
Bluefin All year round
times. However, over the last few years in Tasmania, bluefin have begun to be caught regularly at times of the year which could be considered “out of season”, much to the delight of game fishers around the state. Although some of these captures have been one off events, many others have resulted in consistent runs of fish, some of which were as reliable as the traditional tuna season! The timing of the run of tuna also appears to vary depending on areas around the state. E.g. the south coast seems to hold bluefin much earlier than the east coast (January onwards is usually quite consistent), while bluefin pop up intermittently year round along the west coast. More recently, barrel bluefin have also been caught off the north coast, which previously would have never been considered possible! The east coast generally follows the more traditional tuna season, which is mentioned further up.
By
Jonah Yick - Tuna Champions ambassador..
H
istorically, the Tasmanian southern bluefin tuna fishing season ranged from April through until July, give or take a month or so on either end. For many game fishers, this has always been accepted, and very little fishing effort would occur outside of these
Bluefin populations on the recovery It is amazing to see how prevalent bluefin have become over the last few seasons, especially when compared to the old catch records from The Tuna Club of Tasmania (TCT) in the early to mid-2000s. In 2003, 2005, and 2006 not a single bluefin was caught at any of the regular club rallies held at Eaglehawk Neck,
while the winning fish for the annual Eaglehawk Neck bluefin tuna competition in 2003, 2004, and 2005 were all albacore, due to the complete absence of bluefin. From the club rallies in 2004 and 2007, there was a total of three and four bluefin caught respectively. A stark contrast to the current day catch rates, where in particular over the 2015/16 season, the TCT reported a record breaking 799 bluefin tuna tagged over the financial year by club members. The following season gun charter fishing operator Stu Nichols of Personalised Sea Charters managed just over 1000 bluefin, with the majority released. Compiled with assistance from The Tuna Club of Tasmania Secretary Robin Banks. It is difficult to say whether this apparent increase in occurrence of bluefin is due to more game fishers prospecting, or whether it is due to an increase in overall bluefin tuna stocks. It could potentially be a function of both, with the CCSBT Scientific Committee confirming that southern bluefin tuna are now recovering strongly. Whatever the reason may be, hopefully this remarkable fishing continues over the coming years, and bluefin tuna remain in these quantities for many years to come.
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Fishing News - Page 13
