The P.E.I. Bluefin tuna season is now open.
Island fishers headed out on the water Aug. 2 after a one-day delay to the opening. The first fishing period will run until Sept. 26. Any remaining quota will be reallocated and the fishery will reopen on Sept. 29 and continue until Dec. 31 or until all the quota is caught.
This year, there will be a requirement to hail in to a dockside monitoring company a minimum of one hour prior to returning to port for every trip, regardless of whether a fish has been caught.
The Island fleet will have access to a portion of quota transferred from Mexico to Canada. Tags will be valid for the whole fishing season.
There is also a new license condition regarding tail cuts, prohibiting the extraction of flesh from a tuna between the second dorsal fin and tail cut until the fish has been offloaded. All other management measures are similar to 2016, including the use of Electronic Monitoring Systems in both the commercial and hook and release fisheries.
