THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 18, 1996 TAG: 9608180063
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HATTERAS ISLAND LENGTH: 149 lines
To help biologists better understand one of the biggest, most profitable and most baffling fish swimming the seas, anglers from around the world are invited to ``tag a giant'' this winter in the Gulf Stream waters off the Outer Banks.
After two years of research - and more than nine months of preparation - officials unveiled plans last week to host the Giant Bluefin Tuna Conservation Series.
The competition will be held from Feb. 21 to March 15 and will be based in Hatteras Village. It will give anglers the chance to catch 300- to 1,500-pound bluefin tuna, which have been schooling off the coast for the past three years.
It will also give scientists an opportunity to place high-tech tags in an unusually high number of tuna. They say they could learn more about the famed fish from this tagging series than they have from all the studies conducted this century.
``Information we will get if one of these tags is recovered will fill in major gaps in our knowledge of bluefin tuna,'' said Dr. Barbara Block, assistant professor at Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University.
``It will tell us about their movements, physiology, spawning practices and other behavior. It will allow us to understand aspects about the animal that we've never before been able to determine.''
Living up to 37 years and selling for $60,000 per fish - or more - in Japanese sushi markets, bluefin tuna are prized by recreational anglers for their fighting ability and by commercial watermen for the high price their meat fetches.
They inhabit the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the Mediterranean Sea. But because no one has been able to determine how far they swim or where they spawn, populations in different parts of the globe have been governed by different rules and quota systems.
Chris Rogers, a fisheries management specialist with the National Marine Fisheries Service, said results of the tagging series could ``have applications worldwide for the management of this species.
``Bluefin tuna stocks are considered more depleted in the western region of the world than in the East,'' Rogers said Friday from his Silver Spring, Md., office. ``So there are fewer restrictions on catching those tuna in the Mediterranean than there are in the Atlantic.
``If scientists can determine that the same fish swim from one ocean to another, perhaps regulators will decide that we don't need to be as strict as we have been in the West with our regulations.''
Commercial and recreational limits on keeping bluefin tuna are quite stringent. So, like most of the fishery off the Outer Banks, the series will be a catch-and-release event. Fishermen will use circle-shaped hooks and heavy tackle in an attempt not to kill the fish.
From January to March of this year, anglers tagged and released 2,500 giant bluefin off Hatteras Island. The spaghetti-size, fluorescent orange tags show where and when the fish were caught. Last month, two tuna that had been tagged off Hatteras during the winter of 1994-95 were recaptured off the coast of Sicily, Italy.
During the upcoming Giant Bluefin Conservation Series, scientists will surgically implant much more advanced ``archival tags'' into the tunas' stomachs instead of just jabbing plastic tags into the fishes' tough sides.
The cigar-size archival tags measure the animals' body temperature, the depth they're swimming, their behavior and location within 60 miles, and even the temperature of the water around the fish. The tags provide daily data for at least five years.
Fishermen will catch tuna at least 6 feet long, then radio one of two ``surgical boats'' with their location.
The support boats, carrying four scientists each, will slide alongside the charter boat and bring the fish on board. Workers will place a wet blanket under the bluefin and over its eyes, like blinders. Implanting the tag takes less than five minutes and requires two or three stitches across an inch-long incision. When the procedure is complete, the tuna is released into the Atlantic to splash away.
If one of the archivally tagged tuna is recaptured - and the tag is recovered - biologists will be able to determine almost all the fish's movements since the time it was tagged.
``We expect a five or 10 percent recovery on these archival tags,'' said Block, a member of the Tuna Research Conservation Center who is working with the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California.
Block and biologists from the National Marine Fisheries Service are among the scientists scheduled to surgically implant tags in tuna off Hatteras in February. ``The single recovery of an archival tag will recover more information about bluefin than the entire amount of studies we have done so far.''
In March, Block and other biologists inserted archival tags into 10 bluefin off the Outer Banks, all of which swam away after being released. But because the tags are so expensive - $1,500 each - the scientists were unable to afford to implant them in any additional animals. The chance of recovering one of those 10 tags is pretty slim - although whoever returns one is rewarded with $1,000.
During the tagging series, officials hope to put archival tags into 150 bluefin. That will create a much greater chance of getting one of the tags back. And it will allow anglers an opportunity to catch the tuna and help with much-needed research while giving biologists more fish to choose from before implanting the tags.
``We didn't have the budget to purchase all the tags we needed,'' Rogers said. ``This event will give us the volume of fish necessary to ensure recovery of at least a few of them.''
To participate in the series, people have to purchase at least one archival tag for $1,500. They also have to furnish their own boat - or charter one from a North Carolina fleet. A single day's charter for six anglers costs about $1,000. Many Outer Banks captains already are booked for some winter weekends.
``The short-term economic gain from this series will be incredible'' for the southern Outer Banks, said Hatteras Village real estate agent Tim Midgett, who is helping organize the event.
``Already, there's been a tremendous impact on this village from the bluefin. Several hotels and restaurants were able to remain open all winter for the first time this year to accommodate all the anglers.''
One 40-room Hatteras Village hotel, for example, brought in $10,000 between January and March of 1994. During the same months this year, its income was $52,000.
Officials already have sold 25 archival tags for the Hatteras tuna series. Wayne Huizenga Jr. - whose father owns the Miami Dolphins football team, Florida Marlins baseball team and formerly owned the Blockbuster Video franchise - bought 10 tags. The first angler whose tag is recovered a year or more after the tournament will be awarded the grand prize - a $7,000 fighting chair from Release Marine and a painting of a bluefin tuna by angler and marine biologist Guy Harvey.
But Mac Currin, who directs the North Carolina State University Sports Fishing School, and Bob Eakes, who runs Red Drum Tackle Shop in Buxton and was named ``Captain of the Year for Bluefin'' by the International Game Fish Association this winter, say the tuna fishery will be the real winner of this event because scientists will be able to better understand how to manage the species.
``We had anglers from 30 states and several foreign countries come to Hatteras last winter just to catch and release the bluefin,'' Currin said from his Raleigh home. ``This winter, they'll get to help generate information about the tuna and help the scientists. We're planning informational discussions, social events in the evenings and activities for days with bad weather.
``Our goal was to sponsor a fun event fishing for these giants that will help scientists learn more about these incredible fish,'' said Currin. ``It's one hell of a fishery. It's astounding to be able to catch as many 300-pound tuna as you want to in a single day.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
[DREW C. WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot file
An Outer Banks bluefin tuna competition this winter will use tags
that record detailed data about the fish. Above: Bob Eakes unhooks a
differently tagged bluefin earlier this year. - This photo only ran
with the North Carolina edition version of this story.]
Graphic
The Virginian-Pilot
TUNA TAGS
SOURCE: National Marine Fisheries Service
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm] by CNB