Tuna Controversy Confounds

This week’s column is all about tuna.

Okay, the fluke fishing is still pretty good off Montauk and inside Shinnecock Bay and stripers are starting to show in the surf and in the Montauk rips again. But tuna, of a few species, are the hot topic.

I had planned to have this column be a detailed explanation of how the rules for fishing for giant bluefin tuna in state waters works in hopes of shedding some light on the conflict that has been brewing up off Rhode Island. But it hasn’t turned out to be an easy thing to nail down.

Some New York fishermen have been told over the past week that they cannot fish for the federally regulated bluefin tuna at a hot spot off Point Judith that is just inside the 3-mile line of state territorial waters because they do not have Rhode Island state-issued commercial fishing permits. Most of them don’t because they have no intention of landing tunas in Rhode Island. They are catching them and bringing them back to New York, just like Rhode Island fishermen do when they come into New York waters and fish for fluke or striped bass off Montauk Point and take them back to Rhode Island.

But giant bluefin tuna are worth thousands of dollars, and you can be sure that the Pt. Judith fleet is annoyed that they have this great fishing opportunity right in their backyards and all these New York boats are rolling in and crowding up the place.

Bluefin tuna and all other tunas are what is known as “highly migratory species” and their harvest is regulated solely by the National Marine Fisheries Service, which requires various different permits for fishing for them recreationally and commercially. Bluefins in particular, because of their enormous financial value, are maybe one of the most tightly regulated species of fish in the world.

Rarely does the issue occur of who is at authority when it comes to tuna fishing inside the 3-mile state lines because, frankly, it’s pretty rare that there are tuna less than 3 miles from the shore around here. But as the bluefin tuna population has rebounded amazingly over the last decade, they have been showing up in a lot of old haunts, some of which are inside state waters.

The federal rules regulating the harvest of bluefin tuna say nothing about a state having any authority to regulate their harvest. States do require commercial landing licenses for their ports, which is more a regulation of who gets to participate in commerce, and some states have special reporting requirements for the landing of giant bluefin that requires they be documented with the state, in addition to the federal reporting of all catches of giant bluefin.

Certainly, a state could never allow rules for tuna fishing in their waters that are less restrictive than the federal guidelines. But if a state like Rhode Island can dictate that only boats licensed within that state may harvest them, could that state also then set more restrictive rules for their harvest, even ban it entirely, for everyone? The federal rule book makes no accommodation for such a thing and officials from NOAA that I spoke to this week said they too were unclear.

Cape Cod has had bluefin tuna right up against its beaches for years, and dozens of boats from New York and Rhode Island and New Hampshire, and probably states all over the coast have long gone up there to fish for them and have never been told they are not welcome by Massachusetts state agencies. That could change now that Rhode Island has take such an unfriendly stance.

There are lots of tuna in our state waters now, too. Smaller ones.

False albacore have set up in Montauk and, to a lesser extent, along the ocean beaches to Shinnecock in huge numbers — much to the elation of light tackle anglers.

There are plenty of opportunities to catch them from shore if you don’t have a boat. The Shinnecock Inlet jetties are a classic spot, but have been sort of inconsistent. Montauk’s north-facing beaches have had ample opportunities this past week, particularly at the broad expanse of Navy Beach on Fort Pond Bay, which affords plenty of room for anglers rather than the crowds on the local jetties.

There’s also plenty of yellowfin and smaller bluefin tuna within striking distance of shore for those with small boats and some nice weather days this week.

Whatever the size or species you pursue, catch ’em up. See you out there.