Circular Hooks, Designed to Release Bluefin Tuna - NYTimes.com

weak hooks

blue fin Atlantic tuna

Circular Hooks, Designed to Release Bluefin Tuna - NYTimes.com: "Starting this month, commercial fishing vessels that drop long lines in the Gulf of Mexico in search of tuna are mandated to use lightweight circular hooks that retain approved fish like yellowfin tuna, but flatten under the weight of the far heavier bluefin and allow them to swim free."

NY Times Magazine: Are Blue Fin Tuna on the Brink?

Kenji Aoki for The New York Times

By PAUL GREENBERG

Published: June 21, 2010

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On the morning of June 4, in the international waters south of Malta, the Greenpeace vessels Rainbow Warrior and Arctic Sunrise deployed eight inflatable Zodiacs and skiffs into the azure surface of the Mediterranean. Protesters aboard donned helmets and took up DayGlo flags and plywood shields. With the organization’s observation helicopter hovering above, the pilots of the tiny boats hit their throttles, hurtling the fleet forward to stop what they viewed as an egregious environmental crime. It was a high-octane updating of a familiar tableau, one that anyone who has followed Greenpeace’s Save the Whales adventures of the last 35 years would have recognized. But in the waters off Malta there was not a whale to be seen.

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  Endangered-Species Status Is Sought for Bluefin Tuna (June 24, 2010)

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Kenji Aoki for The New York Times

The dorsal fin of a Pacific bluefin tuna.

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What was in the water that day was a congregation of Atlantic bluefin tuna, a fish that when prepared as sushi is one of the most valuable forms of seafood in the world. It’s also a fish that regularly journeys between America and Europe and whose two populations, or “stocks,” have both been catastrophically overexploited. The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, one of only two known Atlantic bluefin spawning grounds, has only intensified the crisis. By some estimates, there may be only 9,000 of the most ecologically vital megabreeders left in the fish’s North American stock, enough for the entire population of New York to have a final bite (or two) of high-grade otoro sushi. The Mediterranean stock of bluefin, historically a larger population than the North American one, has declined drastically as well......

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/magazine/27Tuna-t.html#

Provincetown Sleigh Ride

Nantucket Sleigh Ride is what they called being hauled around the ocean in a skiff with a harpoon in a whale - in the days of Ahab.

Dave Lamoureux paddles his 12 foot kayak off Race Point, Provincetown, Mass and gets the same thrill when he - occasionally - hooks a blue fin tuna - and 3 times now - lands one. The pictures are above and the story HERE

Images: Captain Andrew Poce via Dave Lamoureux, and the New York Times

Blue Fin Tuna - an endangered species?

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has announced that it will support placing the Blue Fin Tuna on the International Trade Endangered Species list.

I love tuna - as a food. My favorite - after peanut butter. In tuna salad, tuna steaks (rare/medium rare), in Italian tuna salad with capers, garlic, onions, oil & vinegar. It's a great food.

I remember the thrill of my Dad and Frank Sheridan returning with a bunch of blue fins landed from fighting chairs with Penn Reels on the black 40' Egg Harbor, which the two Navy vets piloted for the aging mafioso Terry Zappi, and his next door neighbor the Don - Carlo Gambino.

But the huge, primordial herds of these kings of the sea (savage beasts that they are) have been devastated by modern fishing methods. An 82% decline in the western Atlantic herds (which breed in the Gulf of Mexico) and 72% decline in the eastern Atlantic herds (which breed in the Mediterranean) have been reported.

NOAA reports that the western herds have stabilized but not the eastern. The U.S. says it will support placement of all herds on the International Endangered species list. The impression one gets is that "if only the guys on the other side were as good as us it could be managed). Maybe. But overall we can say that the announcement is a step forward, which could preserve a significant food supply - particularly in a time when climate change will challenge the viability of many species.