BlueFin Tuna

Due to the UK government we are currently NOT allowed to target these Tuna.

While the UK is a member of the EU and the Common Fish Policy (CFP) within the EU, Only 8 EU countries share the EU's 2018 15,850 tonnes of quota.

Atlantic BlueFin tuna (Latin: Thunnus thynnus) were once a common sight in UK waters, ranging
throughout the Celtic and North Sea. However, they largely disappeared from British waters in the 1990s and only in recent years have they returned. In the last five years, Atlantic bluefin tuna are frequently reported during the late summer, autumn and winter when they move into coastal areas of the UK to feed on energy rich fish, such as sprats and herring.

Whilst their return to ...our coastal waters is incredibly exciting, we know very little about these magnificent animals; where in the ocean they travel from to the UK, where they go when they leave, and just how many have been seen in recent years. To learn more about bluefin tuna in our coastal waters, the “Thunnus UK” project, with funding from the European Union and Defra, will undertake a 2-year programme of research to provide a baseline understanding of the ecology and distribution of these fish around the UK.

I attended the launch of the BlueFin research Programme held by @thunnusuk

Thunnusuk are looking to Electronically Tag 40 Blue Fin Tuna over the next 2 years, the hope being 15 in 2018 and a further 25 in 2019. it is my hope that I may be apart of this tagging programme.

During the launch night it was discussed that the fish seen and caught around the Cornish coastline are not of the same stock as the EU Quota stock. This was determined by an earlier tagging programme tagging 120 fish in the med and 19 west coast of Ireland. these tagged fish move north and south going down to the Canary Islands and up to Iceland stopping in the Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean.

It looks like the Cornish stock of BlueFin Tuna are the Western stock swimming from Mexico. Currently this is unknown and the one of the reasons for this Data collection Project.