A crew of five from the University of New Brunswick’s Transatlantic Fish Lab were on the wharf in Wedgeport for the 20th annual Wedgeport Tuna Tournament and Festival weigh-ins, held Aug. 11 to 24.
It was the first time the university team, headed by Rebekah Oomen, attended the tournament, but by the sounds of things, it likely won’t be their last.
“It’s a fantastic event,” said Oomen. “It’s really well run. It’s really exciting to see so many people gathered around the tuna. We’re happy to be a part of it and get to do some science on the side.”
Working alongside Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) biologist Dheeraj Busawon from the St. Andrews Biological Station, the scientists collected the inner ear bones (otoliths) of the bluefin tuna, which tells them their age as well as native origin.
“We want to know the age structure of the stock. DNA analysis, so we can know where the tuna came from, the Gulf of Mexico, the Mediterranean Sea or even the Slope Sea,” said Oomen.
According to Canadian Science Publishing, recent collections of bluefin tuna larvae in the Slope Sea off the northeastern United States have opened questions about how this region contributes to population dynamics.
“It’s a mixture of all three around here and we don’t have a great understanding of which stock are in Atlantic waters at which times of the year,” said Oomen.
In addition to collecting the same information as DFO, “we are planning to add to that over the years with some new data that we don’t currently collect so that includes something called RNA,” said Oomen. “That looks at not only what genes the tuna have but what genes the tuna are expressing when they’re caught. This gives us some insight in the physiology of the fish when it was caught.”
Oomen said she is looking forward to coming back next year. “I think the cooperation between the festival organizers, the fishers, DFO and UNB is really exciting and is going to lead to a lot of insight into the life of the tuna that everyone will get to benefit from, including the public.”
For Busawon, this was his 14th year collecting samples at the tuna tournament. He said he was able to collect some tuna and swordfish samples from some other ports in the region where fish had been landed during the week. “Most of our research is focused on bluefin tuna and swordfish,” he said.
A total of 40 tunas were landed during the 2024 Wedgeport Tuna Tournament, weighing a total of 11,405 pounds.
The 20 boats that participated in the tournament caught 19 bluefin weighing 9,843 pounds combined. Winning the Milton J. LeBlanc Memorial Tuna Cup for landing the heaviest bluefin tuna (666 pounds) was the Sea Devil, captained by Colin Babin. The Sea Devil also recorded the heaviest overall weight (1,251 pounds) for its catch which included four bigeye and three albacore tunas.
The Robyn Jade, captained by Stephen d’Entremont, landed the heaviest bluefin from the Hell Hole, 318 pounds.
Nine bigeye tunas, weighing 1,094 pounds and 12 albacore, weighing 468 pounds, were landed.
Tim Schrader, who was on Gramps Legacy for the tournament, said it was a beautiful fishing trip.
“It was a nice trip. The weather was amazing. We caught a few fish. We started in the Hell Hole but there wasn’t much action going on so we moved inside to the 30-mile ground. We caught our bluefin yesterday (560 pounds). Before that we had three albacore and a bigeye.”
Schrader said he’s only missed two tournaments since it was started in 2004. “I love this time of the year. It’s a good turnout for Wedgeport. It brings in a lot of people. A lot of people come home for this.”
Brandon Doucette, president of the Wedgeport Tuna Tournament Association, said the weights of the bluefin landed this year are a little bit above the average weight for the tournament. “The average is smaller than last year but last year was by far our highest average. We had three or four bluefin over 700 pounds. If you look back over the past five or 10 years, we are probably above average in size than we were in past years.”
