Member Registration Intent for Bluefin Catch and Release

[skip]

FROM: VRFCC Malta
ATTN MEMBERS

Catch and Release Programme of Bluefin Tuna

According to ICCAT Regulation 08-05 and Council Regulation (EC) No 302/2009, ?Each Member State shall issue fishing authorisations to vessels for the purpose of recreational fishing.? Therefore, sport and recreational fishing could not be conducted unless the vessels have a special authorisation and allocation of quota issued by the Fisheries Control Department.

Several calls of interest were published on local news papers and Government Gazette during the months of May for those who wished to apply for a special authorisation. However, due to the peak in catches during the last few days of the season that overshot the contingency allocation of the national bluefin tuna catch quota, all bluefin tuna fishing activities were halted with immediate effect.

In view of this closure all authorisations to recreational fishing vessels to fish for BFT were revoked. As such no recreational vessels can fish and land bluefin tuna. However a catch and release programme can be accepted till the 14th of October.

The Associations taking part in the catch and release programme have to register with the Fisheries Control Department. Mr. Marvin Seguna should be contacted and a list of vessels that will participate in the catch and release programme have to be sent to the same Department. All catches and releases have to be recorded and submitted to the Fisheries Control Department by the end of October.
______________________________________________________________________________________________

If you would like to legally fish for Bluefin Tuna and carry the necessary equipment on a stricly catch, release and record basis, kindly provide your vessel name and registration number below.

We will then forward this information to the officer in charge at the VRFCC

[skip]

Moved to the Boat Offshore section as I realised that people couldn't reply in the previous board.

[benri]

Shisha; S-17590

[robby017]

Vessel Name - N/A    Reg: S 13756

I'm not the owner of the boat, but when it comes to fishing i'm the skipper. what do i need to do in this case?

[visa]

vessel name; Reelax reg Valletta

[guido99]

Vessel name : VALENTINAS
Reg:              MFC 6702 VALLETTA
                               

[ed2112]

'Otra Vez' - 11552

[ed2112]

still, I dont understand why you need to register to release a fish.........

there is no way you can stop a bluefin tuna from hitting your lure whilst fishing for other fish.......

Ed

[148148]

What is the situation if you accidentally land a BFT on a longline, its drowned lets say, can you land it or must you just drop it dead in the ocean to float away?

[robby017]

you can bring it in as a bycatch... but it must have been caught on, say, swordfish longlines.... sa fejn naf jien.... BUT - longline fishing is NOT recreational fishing!!!!

bigboy can tell you better...

[skip]

still, I dont understand why you need to register to release a fish.........

there is no way you can stop a bluefin tuna from hitting your lure whilst fishing for other fish.......

Ed

Ed it's an ICAAT requirement that the EU has imposed on all EU member states since the last meeting. It's done in order to be able to monitor and record the number of catches and could be a positive thing. Ie. 100 boats registered for catch and release but only 20 caught and released.

In addition it permits you to carry gear like heavy mono, circle hooks and bait for chumming, chunking and drifting which is another method of catching them.

If you're trolling as you rightly point out, your lures don't target specific fish. But I believe that registration is required for two reasons, 1) to legalise it and know that you are in conformance, potentially even passing on a list of authorised boats to the AFM/Police and 2) to know that you need to report your catch and release information so that they can be compiled as part of the statistics each country has to report etc.

Please try and keep this to registration info only and open another thread for general BFT discussion

[bigboy]

Alalunga

s 13033

[toxictuna]

cool breeze-valletta

[busumark]

no name - MFC 6171

[fishfinder]

MariaHilda S-15682