The recreational daily bluefin tuna (BFT) retention for limit for HMS Angling and HMS Charter/Headboat vessels (while fishing recreationally) is 1 BFT/vessel/day/trip, measuring 27 to less than 47”, and 1 BFT/vessel/day/trip, measuring 47 to less than 73" CFL. This limit effective through December 31, 2008. These BFT retention limits are effective for all areas, except for the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf of Mexico is designated as a spawning grounds for BFT and therefore NMFS does not allow vessels, commercial or recreational, to target BFT while fishing in this area. However, HMS Angling and HMS Charter/Heaboats are eligible to retain 1 BFT (73 inches or greater) per vessel per year as a “trophy” fish for the boat. This fish may be retained in the Gulf of Mexico if it is caught incidentally while pursuing other species. The recreational yellowfin tuna daily retention limit is 3 yellowfin/person. The minimum size for yellowfin and bigeye tuna is 27" curved fork length. There are no recreational limits for bigeye, skipjack or albacore tunas.

As of August 4, 2008, calendar year landings of Atlantic bluefin tuna are as follows: The Coastwide General Category has landed 51.4 mt out of 740.0 mt to date. Harpoon category: 19.3 mt out of 61.2 mt to date. Longline North: 17.6 mt out of 47.7 mt to date. Longline South: 40.9 mt out of 34.0 mt to date. Trap category: 0.3 mt out of 1.4 mt to date. Purse Seine category: 0.0 mt out of 292.2 mt to date.

For further details regarding this years General Category Bluefin Tuna Fishery please read the 'NMFS Announces Final Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Quotas and Effort Controls' article posted here. The current bag limit is 3 BFT measuring 73 inches curved fork length or greater per vessel perday/trip.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announces a final rule to set the 2008 fishing year quotas for the Atlantic bluefin tuna (BFT) fishery and effort controls, based on the quota recommended for the United States by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). The final quotas for the 2008 fishing year (January 1 through December 31, 2008), including the time-period subquotas for the General category, are posted in the LIBRARY. NMFS establishes General category retention limits and Angling category retention limits for the 2008 fishing year, as posted in the LIBRARY. This notice is a courtesy to help keep you informed about your fishery. Official notice of Federal fishery actions is made through filing such notice with the Office of the Federal Register. For further information contact the HMS Management Division at (978) 281-9260.

Regulations implemented under the authority of the Atlantic Tunas Convention Act and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act governing the harvest of Highly Migratory Species (HMS), including tunas, sharks, swordfish, and billfish by persons and vessels subject to U.S. jurisdiction are found at 50 CFR part 635. Under these regulations vessels are required to posses a permit to fish for HMS, regardless of fishing recreationally or commercially. These permits are legally issued to ONLY those vessels that have a valid registration, which can be verified with the U.S. Coast Guard or by the issuing State. No temporary registrations are allowed. It is unlawful for any person or vessel subject to these regulations to falsify information required on the application, and if discovered the responsible parties may be prosecuted.

Effective October 17th, 2007, a new internet based reporting system for recreational non-tournament landings of North Atlantic swordfish and billfish will be available. All recreational non-tournament swordfish and billfish landings, including those from Charter/Headboats, must be reported by the permitted owner of the vessel landing the fish, or their designee, within 24 hours of landing. A landed fish means a fish that is kept and has been brought to shore. Vessels landing swordfish or billfish in North Carolina and Maryland must report their landings through the state landing card programs. Vessels landing swordfish or billfish in all other states, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, must report their landings using the new internet reporting portal at http://www.hmspermits.gov or by calling the 1-800-894-5528 reporting line.

This notice outlines the procedure for obtaining a 2007/2008 Atlantic Tunas Permit, which allows you to commercially fish for and/or retain Atlantic Bluefin, Yellowfin, Skipjack, Albacore, and Bigeye tunas; an Atlantic Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Angling Permit, which allows you to recreationally fish for and or retain any regulated Atlantic HMS (Atlantic tunas, sharks, swordfish, or billfish); or an HMS Charter/Headboat Permit, which is required by vessels taking fee paying passengers fishing for or retaining HMS. The permits issued for the 2007/2008 season will be valid from the date of issuance through December 31, 2008. The permit fee is $28.00, payable by credit card (Visa, Master Card, Discover, or American Express) or money order only. You will need your Atlantic tunas or your Atlantic HMS permit number to renew your permit for this up coming season. If you do not have your permit number from last year available, you may look it up at www.hmspermits.gov using your last name, phone number, and zip code, or a Customer Service representative may assist at the number below. Please check your current permit information carefully prior to renewing your permit. Due to the duration of the permit, changes to you permit category may be made under the following circumstances: a) When you renew the permit for the upcoming season; b) During the time period of January 1 – May 31, 2008; or c) Within 10-calendar days from the permits’ date of issuance, to correct any errors in permit category.

• (1) HMS E-MAIL NOTIFICATION LIST DEVELOPED – The Highly Migratory Species Management Division has created an email listserve to provide updates and notifications of HMS fishery actions. This system has replaced the previous fax based system. To subscribe to Atlantic HMS News, enter your email address into the sign-up form located at the Atlantic HMS News page at http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/hms/newslist/. • (2) VOICE ACTIVATED TELEPHONE SYSTEM DEVELOPED – The HMS Management Division has implemented a new voice activated telephone permit renewal and reporting system. The telephone number has remained the same, 1-888-872-8862 (1-888-USA-TUNA), yet callers can now speak their choices instead of using the keypad on their telephone. • (3) .GOV versus .COM – The HMSPermits website has officially been converted to a .gov site. If you experience an error message when logging on to this site please check you bookmarks.

The recreational daily swordfish retention limit is 1 fish per person, with a maximum of 4 fish per private vessel, 6 for a charter vessel, and 15 for a headboat vessel. The minimum size for swordfish within the recreational fishery is 47 inches, lower jaw-fork length. You may not keep longbill spearfish. There are no retention limits for Atlantic sailfish, blue marlin and white marlin, but the NOAA Fisheries encourages recreational anglers to release all billfish alive. The minimum sizes for billfish are as follows: Blue Marlin: 99 inches lower jaw fork length; White Marlin: 66 inches lower jaw fork length; Sailfish: 63 inches lower jaw fork length; Spearfish: Retention prohibited. Lower jaw fork length is a straight line measurement from the tip of the lower jaw to the fork of the caudal fin. The recreational limit on sharks is 1 shark per vessel per trip with a minimum size of 54 inches fork length; plus on Atlantic sharpnose shark per person per trip (no minimum size); plus 1 bonnethead shark per person per trip (no minimum size). None of these fish may be sold. Swordfish and billfish landed must be reported. For swordfish and billfish reporting, call 800-894-5528. For NC and MD landings call 410-213-1531 or 800-338-7804 respectively.

The Large Pelagics Survey (LPIS) collects length data on recreationally landed Atlantic bluefin tuna (BFT). The LPS Procedures Manual (prior to 2005) specified that interviewers should measure and record the straight fork length (SFL) of BFT, not the curved fork length (CFL) that is used to define size classes for management purposes. Recently, some members of the recreational and commercial fishing industry have questioned whether or not this procedure has been consistently followed in the field. Some individuals have reported seeing LPS interviewers measuring CFLs of landed BFT. Therefore, they have raised a concern that the interviewers may actually have been recording CFLs rather than SFLs. The CFL of a given fish is greater than its SFL by some small factor (typically between 1-5%). If such errors have occurred, then LPS estimates of landed weight of BFT by size category would most likely be positively biased since length data are converted to weights for landings estimates. This evaluation was conducted to: 1) determine the extent to which CFLs were mistakenly recorded, and the extent to which such errors may have biased the overall BFT landed weight estimate, and 2) investigate the effects that biased measurements could potentially have had on prior stock assessments.