ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, March 17, 1997 TAG: 9703180096
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: HATTERAS VILLAGE, N.C.
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
``Awesome!'' ``Unbelievable!'' ``World class!'' ``You gotta go!''
These are terms being used to describe the winter bluefin tuna fishery off this wind-swept hamlet, where the Outer Banks poke into the belly of the Atlantic like a bony finger.
``Brand new'' is another term that might accurately be used.
``We found the fish the winter of 1993-94,'' said Bob Eakes, who owns the Red Drum tackle shop in Buxton. ``It mushroomed quickly, where in 1995 about 20 of the local charter boats fished. Last year we were up to 60 boats. This year it is wide-open. Every big boat slip in Hatteras is taken.''
Most of the fleet from Oregon Inlet is docked at Hatteras, and is joined by craft from up and down the East Coast.
Winter no longer is an off-season of boarded-up windows. You stand in line to get breakfast, and you'd best call ahead for a motel - not to see if it is open, but to make sure it isn't full.
``It is the best giant bluefin tuna fishing in the world today,'' said Eakes, who has become the guru of the sport. ``Nobody has ever seen anything like it - nowhere, no place, no time.''
Days of doing battle with as many as 20 fish weighing 200 to 400 pounds aren't uncommon. Parties of six fishermen pay $1,000 for a charter, then stand back and tell a buddy, ``You land the next one,'' an act motivated more by fatigue than generosity. Fishermen stutter for ways to describe the incredible fight of a muscular tuna, one saying, ``It is like being fastened to a speeding train.'' ``We aren't talking about brook trout,'' another said.
The bluefin is powerful and streamlined for speed, capable of bursts up to 55 mph. Its scientific name is from the Greek verb meaning ``rush.''
Off Hatteras, huge schools of tuna hold to the Gulf Stream, a river of life in the ocean where the water temperatures suddenly shoot up, creating a wall of steam that the captains call ``sea smoke.''
The fish can be lured with chum or located by trolling, and when things go right the water suddenly is black with tuna. Boats all around are raising fish, hooking fish, fighting fish, losing fish, landing fish and tagging fish. Dorsal fins and sickle-shaped tails lash the water into big boils. Reels shriek and line smokes off spools. Above the waves are shouts and cheers amid a blur of activity.
The action has lured thousands of fishermen, not just from the Roanoke Valley and other mid-Atlantic inland areas, but from Europe and Asia.
``For three months out of the year, we used to just twiddle our thumbs,'' Eakes said. Now winter is classified as the area's peak fishing season.
All this raises questions: Were these fish always off Hatteras in the winter, a treasure undiscovered until recently? Or did they just move in? If so, will they be gone again as mysteriously as they appeared?
There were some nervous moments in January, when the tuna appeared to be late making their appearance, but after they arrived, the action picked up rapidly and Eakes classifies the current season as a good one. The bluefin should be around into April, their numbers fortified with the arrival of yellowfin tuna, which already are showing up.
Eakes believes the wintering bluefin are new to Hatteras.
``These fish are just too visible,'' he said. ``You just can't miss them. They weren't there. I fished the entire length in the 1980s this time of year, out there week after week, and they weren't there.''
An aggressive tagging system, called ``Tag A Giant,'' should help solve the mystery, Eakes said.
``I think it is a new stock that has come from somewhere in the Atlantic,'' said Eakes, explaining that the giant bluefin may have switched their wintering grounds because of overfishing or the scarcity of food.
If so, the Hatteras fishery has no long-term guarantee. It could disappear, and with it the fleet of winter-active charter boats. Then, plywood to board up windows against the winter wind will be back in vogue.
``They have a fantastic history of doing that - disappearing,'' Eakes said. ``If you impact them too hard, they leave.''
The Hatteras bluefin fishery is primarily a catch-and-release affair. Early in the season, an angler could keep one small fish, but that was stopped recently when the season's quota was met. Some fishermen wonder if even this much protection is enough for a trans-Atlantic migrator that runs a gantlet of seines, longline fleets and traps, not to mention hook-and-line fishermen. It can be a matter of conservation on one side of the Atlantic and high-priced sushi on the other.
``I know the National Marine Service the last two years has come down and tried their best to get a handle on whether we are hurting this stock or not,'' Eakes said.
He believes tuna can be caught and released without harm. ``I have watched the hooks taken out of hundreds and hundreds of tuna and seen them swim off.''
Some of the bluefins tagged off Hatteras have been caught in the Mediterranean Sea. The ``Tag A Giant'' program is implanting sophisticated, $1,500 tags in the belly cavities of fish. The tags record water temperature, depth and location for up to five years.
``The biggest fish we have surgically implanted was a 600-pounder,'' Eakes said. ``We put that 600-pounder through my tuna door, but we had a fish two years ago we could not slide through the door. We guessed she was 1,000 pounds.''
LENGTH: Long : 101 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. BILL COCHRAN THE ROANOKE TIMES. Every big boat slipby CNBin Hatteras, N.C., is taken by a fleet of sleek sport-fishing craft
dedicated to battling giant bluefin tuna. 2. DREW WILSON LANDMARK
NEWS SERVICE. Bob Eakes frees a tuna after tagging it for research.
3. Bob Eakes is considered the guru of the new fishery. color.