Bluefin tuna campaign gets huge boost – from Ireland

The case for a UK live-release recreational fishery for the magnificent Atlantic Bluefin Tuna has received a huge boost – from Ireland. Approval has been given for Irish recreational anglers to take part in a science-based catch, tag and release programme. Recently, the Angling Trust met with Fisheries Minister George Eustice to put the case for a UK live-release recreational fishery.

Angling groups campaigning for the establishment of a UK live-release bluefin tuna recreational fishery have received a huge boost from Ireland. The Angling Trust and campaign group Bluefin Tuna UK have warmly welcomed the news that Ireland has secured approval from the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and the European Union (EU) for the introduction of a science-based catch, tag and release research programme utilising Irish recreational anglers.

For the last three years giant Atlantic Bluefin Tuna have appeared in substantial numbers in waters around the British Isles. From Cornwall, through the Celtic Deeps off south west Wales, off the Irish west coast and throughout the Western Isles of Scotland, hundreds of sightings have been made.

Their presence in UK waters – a return after an absence since the early 1950s – presents a fantastic opportunity for the UK. Last November the Angling Trust and Bluefin Tuna UK launched a joint campaign to establish a live-release sport fishery that would deliver a significantly greater economic value, per tonne, than that of a traditional commercial fishery, with the societal benefits spread across a wider cross section of coastal communities. The fishery would also support broader, global, scientific research into bluefin tuna through the sort of parallel tagging programmes already being supported by WWF in Sweden and Denmark and now about to occur in Ireland. Once the UK has left the European Union this could be achieved by the UK applying to join the ICCAT as a sovereign member and requesting a quota in our own right.

The campaign has been gathering pace and has the support of key MPs plus thousands of recreational anglers and charter boat skippers from Cornwall to Scotland. Last week campaigners met Fisheries Minister George Eustice to press the case for a UK fishery. Ireland’s new bluefin tuna management plan was agreed following the adoption by ICCAT of a new management plan at their 2018 Annual Meeting which took place in Dubrovnik in November of last year. 

Michael Creed, the Irish Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, said: “As part of the negotiations on the new international management plan for bluefin tuna in the east Atlantic, Ireland was able to secure agreement that will allow countries like Ireland, that do not have a commercial bluefin tuna quota, to operate a catch-tag-release fishery for gathering scientific data. Click here for more information