Current Bluefin Tuna Regs

[capt. carl]

Now you got it bro!
Yup....and don t forget if fishing commercially, u must comply with commercial safety regulations!

[BWhaler23]

Now I'm confused and also suffered heat stroke this week so my brains may still be a little scrambled, but lets see if I got this stright....I have a captains license, and the boat is registered commercially, and I have the headboat/charterboat HMS license. From what I understand if I take paying customers I have to abide by recreational rules, but I can make a commercial trip and commercial rules apply, and if memory serves me, I don't need the commercial safety gear, that would only apply if I had a general or commercial only license, also the safety gear would depend on size of crew/vessel. It was a bad week to get sick, would have been a good time to try and look for some bluefin.

Capt. Pat

[capt. carl]

Whaler..
Under the rules of the Charter/Headboat permit....
If you have paying customers and you take and keep a fish under 73 inches, you are fishing on the recreational side of the permit...(allowed 1 over and 1 under).u can still take 1 trophy per year....unless you harvested that trophy already....the safety gear is not required on these
Trips (ie...raft, survival suits for every person onboard, Type 1 Auto Epirb instead of Type 2 Manual deployed)).
I am goinh to double check on this but i was told , If you fish the commercial side of the permit and take the 3 fish at 73 and over...you are now just like a liveliner or scalloper and all the applicable safety gear must be onboard as well...and you ARE REQUIRED to sell that catch to a dealer.....cant just go out and say I'm fishing commercially, catch your 3 big ones and then keep the catch for yourself.
Will definately find the correct answer for us....in the meantime, anyone who fishes commercially on these permits can maybe chime in?

[Gerry Zagorski]

^^^^^ All starting to make sense now. I guess that's why when you fish for Giants with the commercial guys up in Gloucester, you can't keep any fish. By law the boats have to sell them.

I guess if you as a for hire headboat or charter, or recreational angling permit, could keep 1 giant a year if you wanted to, but you are not allowed to sell them.

Now we need to be able to indentify the different tunas... Here is a helpful chart I found on the NMFS site. Probably something handy to print out and have with you on the boat. http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/hms/Tun...e_Aug_2012.pdf

[Sharkyispy]

Originally Posted by capt. carl

Whaler..
Under the rules of the Charter/Headboat permit....
If you have paying customers and you take and keep a fish under 73 inches, you are fishing on the recreational side of the permit...(allowed 1 over and 1 under).u can still take 1 trophy per year....unless you harvested that trophy already....the safety gear is not required on these
Trips (ie...raft, survival suits for every person onboard, Type 1 Auto Epirb instead of Type 2 Manual deployed)).
I am goinh to double check on this but i was told , If you fish the commercial side of the permit and take the 3 fish at 73 and over...you are now just like a liveliner or scalloper and all the applicable safety gear must be onboard as well...and you ARE REQUIRED to sell that catch to a dealer.....cant just go out and say I'm fishing commercially, catch your 3 big ones and then keep the catch for yourself.
Will definately find the correct answer for us....in the meantime, anyone who fishes commercially on these permits can maybe chime in?

You've got it......I'll see if I can upload what I have form Tuna.com for our reservation that outlines these items......

[BWhaler23]

In any event, I can't wait to have the probem.... but it's good to know before U go..

[bigal427]

What are the fines for illegal Bluefin ?

[Gerry Zagorski]

Good question but I couldn't find anything online about fines, other then I saw where one guy in Florida who took and sold one when the season was closed. He was fined $800 and a number of days of community service but there was also a resisting arrest charge in the mix.

[TUNA.COM]

Originally Posted by GregW93

What Bernie and Carl have said is correct. With your permit,You declare what you are fishing for by the first fish you kill. If you kill one under 73" you are recreational fishing. If you kill on over 73" you are commercial fishing, unless you claim it as your trophy fish. You can only sell fish over 73" if you have the commercial general category or the head boat/charter boat permit. It is illegal to sell any Bluefin under 73" regardless of what permit you have. Hope this helps!

That is best stated and all correct.

Now the question is can I catch a bass in state waters and later go tuna fishing in federal waters while retaining bass on board in federal waters even though I did not catch the bass in federal waters AND can I have an undersized cod on my hook for bait while tuna fishing OR how about a legal size cod on the hook for bait, however the cod season is closed?

[DMac]

Don't you have to be running charters to apply for charter or headboat license or if you have captains license can you just apply for that permit. Maybe I'm missing something. I thought you had to be coast gaurd inspected charter headboat to apply for that permit? Please clear this up I just want yo make sure I understand it and have correct info.